Sunday, January 19, 2014
What is Big Ramy Doing Now?
Saturday, January 18, 2014
2013 Mr. Olympia: Is Phil Heath Ready For Perfection?
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Phil Heath sucks at bodybuilding! Wipe that condescending look off your face, I’m just joking. This dude is a genetic God and as a fellow west coaster, I like Phil. In Seattle, Washington, 1979, Phillip Jerrod Heath was born. The current 2nd year Mr. Olympia title holder was an impressive athlete from the start, playing basketball for Rainier Beach High School as a shooting guard and graduating to play D1 ball for the University of Denver team. He was a little guy at 5ft 9” and just over a buck seventy. He should have been nicknamed “The Gift” a while ago considering he was a successful college athlete double majoring in IT and Business Administration. Let’s be real though, I doubt UD had a b-ball team that was really worth a shit. But screw it; I’ll give him the credit because I’m sure he’s better than me. In 2002 he decided to put his gifts to work in the bodybuilding arena. He started with a 185lb base and bulked up to a 215lb 6% bodybuilder in the first year. He competed in 2003 at a shredded 192lbs at The Rocky Mountain NPC USA Championship where he walked away with the overall title. Yes, you heard right. Phil heath has been kicking ass and taking names since the very beginning. He was quite gifted genetically, which actually ended up hurting him in the beginning. He was a slacker (relatively speaking). He leaned on his “gifts” and lost competitions because of his lack of proper training.
…he got his act together and ended up as Mr. Colorado and later earning his pro card at 215lbs. To give you an idea of where Phil has come from, let’s look at his weight. Currently, he stalks the bodybuilding stages at 240lbs lean and mean. That’s 25lbs of solid lean body mass that he has gained since turning pro. That’s a ton of muscle on a 5ft 9” frame. In the past, Phil has sported 22” arms, a 19” neck, and 20” calves suspended on a 29” waist. That’s just ridiculous Phil, you’re a freak. He isn’t the biggest guy out there, that’s for sure. Big Ramy should be a monster this year, but he won’t beat Phil. Phil is said to be the most proportionate bodybuilder alive. Ronny Coleman said this about Phil and the 2013 Mr. O, “He has several insane body parts, always nails his conditioning, and presents great separation and thickness.” Big Ron continues to question Phil’s limiting structure and says his frame may, very well be, “maxed out.” I would say Kai Greene is Phil’s nemesis in 2013 as was the case in 2012. Phil barely squeezed the victory from Kai who has a previously lacked back thickness. Kai does have Phil beat on a few key traits. Kai will carry more muscle mass than any other bodybuilder on that stage lbs. per inch and he also has hair that would make CONAN The Barbarian rise from his grave and start doing the YMCA.
I think it will be won by stage presence. The competition this year is ridiculously high. Is this the year Phil will be de-throned? We will find out next week. There is no doubt that Phil will bring the whole package to 2013. His favorite movie is gladiator, favorite food is steak, favorite music is Rock and Hip-hop, and favorite Hobby is hanging out with his two angry dogs. Basically he stays in the zone 24/7 and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the champ. He is cocky and he likes to back it up. He is rumored to make around 3.5million per year. Considering he drives a Bentley that is worth as much as my house, I wouldn’t doubt those numbers. He is backed by the biggest and best in the game; Sponsors include Muscletech and Muscle & Fitness/ Flex magazine. Phil even has a sponsor for chicken breast and egg whites. Red Bird’s Chicken and Lana’s Egg Whites fuel the beast with high-grade protein. He is living the bodybuilding dream and has the talent, drive, and dedication to become the Floyd Mayweather of bodybuilding. In fact, there is one and only one thing “The Gift” is lacking and has been lacking since the very start, hair.
Meet Dana: The Best Physique in the World
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Dana Linn Bailey is an incredibly beautiful and incredibly gifted physique competitor. This past 2013 Mr. Olympia, she was crowned with first place in women’s physique. This was the first time the world had seen women’s physique on the holy grail of bodybuilding, the Mr. O stage. As of October 2013, she is the best physique competitor in the world.
Dana grew up as a jock and played 6 sports growing up. Before high school, she played soccer, basketball, field hockey, track, swim team, and softball. She studied kinesiology at West Chester University where she was recruited to play soccer. She was crowned as the defensive player of the year when she was a junior and senior. She was aggressive and unafraid, similar to how she competes today. The girl is fearless.
She started working out because her boyfriend at the time was a dedicated lifter. He told her that if she wants to see him, she could see him at the gym. What a badass. I like this guy. Fast-forward a couple years and Dana is incredibly proportionate and has a great set of legs. Her shoulders and back are so detailed they are almost see-through. And, her butt ain’t too bad either. Way to work Dana and congrats on the big win at Mr. O. M&M will be anxiously following Dana along her journey, so stay tuned.
Friday, January 17, 2014
M-Sten, Methylstenbolone, MSten RX
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Assault Labs, Iron Mag Labs, and a host of other underground supplement companies are selling a hormone called methylstenbolone. Most companies market this as “MSten, MSten RX, Super M-Sten,” you get the point. I always find it a bit concerning when ten companies have the same name for a product, MSten for example, and none of them go after one another or file copyrights. I’m guessing that this is because most of these companies disappear just as quick as they come up. M-Sten usually is dosed in between 4-10mgs per capsule.
has made quite an impact on the underground community, which is why I wanted to address it. I will shed some light on what a user can expect while using something like this including muscle gains, strength, side effects, PCT, and other comparable steroids.
derivative such as the steroids primobolan and masteron. Because of its relationship with DHT, it will be a lean and relatively dry strength builder. I say strength and not muscle because this compound will sway more on the strength gain side vs. the weight gain side. It is still possible to put on a few good pounds of muscle with this stuff. The underground community has embraced it as the new Holy Grail since the popular Superdrol was banned. In my opinion, there are better, safer options out there, but to each there own.
will be dose dependent as with many other hormones. It will not aromatize, so estrogen sides will be low to non-existent. The usual DHT side effects will be present including prostate problems, having trouble urinating, hair loss, aggression, and acne. The most concerning of all is the 17a Dimethyl attachment to the hormone which is meant to increase the bioavailability of the hormone. As with other methylated steroids such as anadrol, winstrol, and superdrol, Msten is very liver toxic and will increase internal inflammation. This stuff can be dangerous and even deadly depending on dosing and your current liver health. Expect an elevated liver panel across the board and low HDL (good cholesterol) numbers. As always, blood work is a must if you are going to risk running a harsh compound such as methylstenbolone.
Most people are dosing this stuff at 8mgs per day and some go getters are taking upwards of 30mgs per day. Until next time my friends…..
6 Holiday Fit Tips: How to Enjoy Guilt Free Family Time
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to see the family, the in-laws, and watch our gains/hard work disappear in a single month. December and I have a love hate relationship. The following tips are strategies I use (about every other year because I love food) to minimize the damage of the holidays. There are ways to choose foods and habits that don’t portray you as “the stuck up prick that goes to the gym during holidays and thinks he’s better than everyone.“
It is very easy to stuff your plate and face during big family dinners. I can actually do both at once. I only see my family about twice per year. I am able to consume fewer calories by engaging in conversation more with the family. At dinner, slow down the eating, and bond with the family. Don’t talk about lifting. Show them that you have other passions in life besides looking better than they do.
Choose carbs over fats. You will get in a shitload of both if you are not carful. The last thing you need is an insulin spike along with 50g of fat to be shuttled straight to your gut. Take the opportunity to carb up on sweet potatoes. Decline the bread and take one serving of stuffing. Choose white meat instead of dark and forget about the skin. Try to keep the fat low because your body will store fat with all the carbohydrates floating around. That’s just how insulin works. You can’t have your cake and eat it too…..because cake has a shitload of carbs and fat as I’m sure you know. Grab the veggies off the appetizer tray and forget the chips. Don’t worry, the veggies will last a while in the average American home, so you don’t have to hoard them.
I aim for a gallon of water on thanksgiving. The water will also curb your appetite during the day. Avoid alcohol at all costs. Alcohol reduces the affect of insulin so the body cannot mobilize glucose. This is a double whammy as your body will store fat AND ignore shuttling the glucose to the muscles and store it as fat instead. This is dose dependent. The more you drink, the worse your body get’s at properly shuttling carbs.
I’m playing football, I don’t know about you. Get off your ass and do something. You have all day to lie around and be a troll. Drink a cup of coffee or something with caffeine when you wake up. This, in conjunction with exercise, will jumpstart your metabolism for the day and gets things churning. Also, half way through the day, have more caffeine. I like to time this right before thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It will help curb your appetite and increase metabolism efficiency
This is the most important one of all. If you don’t eat breakfast, there is know way you will be able to do any of the first three suggestions in this list. Do not starve yourself until dinner and then gorge on everything in sight. This only ends in loneliness and shame. But seriously, eat breakfast and lunch before the big dinner and you will cut your calorie total.
Desert is where you will really screw things up. Pumpkin pie is a better choice than pecan or apple. Chose sorbet over ice cream. Try a piece of pumpkin pie with milk and a scoop of whey for desert. Put it in a blender with a couple ice cubes. Blend it on high for 30-60seconds. You will thank me later.
Good luck to everyone in the field. And most of all, happy holidays.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Increase Muscle Mass With These Veggies
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What most people don’t realize is that there are small diet changes that can be implemented to create a “pro-muscle building” state. In athletic circles we call this, creating an anabolic environment. It is important to minimize muscle-wasting periods during the day and help your body stay in an anabolic state as much as possible. If done right, this type of practice will keep you in the muscle building zone for the whole day. There are so many choices of different proteins, different carbs, fats, and different veggies to choose from. I have found chicken breast and tuna fish to be the most rewarding proteins but today I am going to discuss vegetables and which ones are optimal for creating anabolism.
There is a compound called sulforaphane that is found in cauliflower, broccoli, and sprouts. Sulforaphane has been teasing athletes and scientists for a while with research promoting improvements in a stem cell that is capable of developing into muscle cells. Recently, a group of molecular scientists in Italy have found that sulforaphane deactivates myostatin, which is a muscle growth inhibitor. This compound also has an anti-carcinogenic and detoxification effects. The researchers gave a group of pigs, who’s muscles cells bear almost identical resemblance to human cells, different concentrations of sulforaphane. What they found is that it increases vitality of the cells and dramatically reduced the syntheses of caspase-9 and -9, which are suicide proteins. This is extremely intriguing however, because sulforaphane reduces vitality in cancerous cells and triggers the suicide mechanism.
In conclusion, sulforaphane may actually reduce muscle wasting and increase protein synthesis. Including this in your diet will help maintain that anabolic environment that we all work so hard to create. What good is busting your ass in the gym if you aren’t getting the nutrients your body needs to repair and build. On your next trip to the supermarket, it might not be a bad idea to grab a bag or four of broccoli and sprouts.
The best natural sources of sulforaphane are brussels sprouts and fresh broccoli. I buy a big bag of frozen broccoli and heat it up for lunches and dinners. Heating the broccoli will reduce positive effects so anytime you can eat it fresh it is more beneficial. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or resources to constantly stock fresh produce so I work with what I have.
Source: http://www.ergo-log.com/cauliflower-broccoli-bodybuilders.html
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
A Methamphetamine Analog in Craze?
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Craze is a pre-workout supplement made by the supplement company Driven Sports. It has recently been pulled off of retail shelves as cautionary reports from labs started accruing. The reports are accusing Craze of containing an amphetamine analogue that is used as a recreational drug and has never before been used on humans. Researched provided by Harvard Medical School, the US FDA, the South Korean National Forensic Service, and the RIVM in the Netherlands were all involved in the Craze takedown.
What initially led to these studies were reports from the WADA. The WADA reported that doping hunters discovered methamphetamine analogues in tested athletes that had never been seen on previous doping tests. Every one of the athletes who were caught came clean about their Craze use. After all, it was legal and presumed harmless. The researchers then went off to buy a few tubs of Craze and proceeded to analyze the contents in their labs.
Craze disclosed some common analogues of beta-phenylethylamine, which is a mild stimulant found in many common foods including chocolate. There was a very peculiar substance that raised suspicions, however; N,N-diethyl-phenylethylamine. Underground supplements companies are not regulated by the FDA and are very good at adding amphetamines or other stimulants and listing them as a peculiar name on the nutrition label. Researchers think that the listed “N,N-diethyl-phenylethylamine” is actually N,alpha-di-ethylphenylethylamine. If this is proved true, then Driven Sports did in fact include an amphetamine analogue in the product.
If you were to attach a methyl group to Beta-phenylethylamine, you can protect the substance from enzymes and therefore boost the stimulant activity. So what has happened is the harmless compound gets turned into the street drug amphetamine. If you attach one more methyl group, then you get methamphetamine, otherwise known as “Meth.” The substance that the researchers found in Craze was one that is created by attaching two ethyl (not methyl) groups to beta-phenylethylamine. It is called N,alpha-di-ethylphenylethylamine.
No research has been done on humans. In fact, the only research done with this compound has been on animals. Knoll Pharmaceuticals patented it in 1988 and considered marketing it as a stimulant. Knoll calculated the effective human dosing should be around 10-150mgs and the most suitable being 30mgs. Interestingly enough, when the researchers measured the amount of the drug in Craze, it proved to be between 21 and 35mgs per scoop. Iiiiiiinteresting.
Driven Sports has announced that this substance naturally occurs in the dendrobium orchid and Craze includes extracts of this plant. This sounds remarkably similar to the Jack3d case about a year ago. Plant “extracts” always seem to be the go-to for supplement companies in hot water. Researchers say it is highly unlikely that Craze contains these extracts causing such a measured dose. Below is a quote from them. Stay safe my friends.
Source: ?Drug Testing and Analysis. Article first published online: 14 Oct 2013. DOI: 10.1002/dta.1578.