History of Bodybuilding by Ric Drasin

True Strength In Body and Mind

True Strength In Body and Mind
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The Following video is from Ross Enamait. You should visit Ross's blog. This guy is an incredible trainer, and even though I do not know him personally, I bet a great guy as well. See the inspiring video below.

A TRIBUTE TO AN ICON: JOESEPH (JOE) WEIDER

A TRIBUTE TO AN ICON: JOESEPH (JOE) WEIDER


By Leon Cruz

By the time you read this you may have heard that Joe Weider passed away. Joe died on March 23, 2013 at the ripe age of 93, eight months from his 94th birthday, which is on November 29th. What can I say about Joe Weider that has not been said already by those who actually knew him. I do not want to bore you with the usual stuff. I would like to talk about how Joe Weider impacted my life. Although I did not know Joe Weider nor did I ever meet him, he did have a profound impact on me through his magazines, supplements and training equipment. Joe Weider was a master marketer. He knew how to sell his products to the masses especially to young boys, which I was when I started lifting weights and training to build my body. I remember the snowy day I went with my mom to buy my first weight set. I was twelve, and for Christmas my mom and I went to T.S.S., which stands for Time Square Stores. These stores were popular back in the early 1980’s. They are all long gone by now. This was the place I bought my 110 pound vinyl cement filled weight set. Looking back, I have to say that I did not know anything about equipment back then. If I did I would have purchased the iron set instead. The weight set I purchased was from Billiard Barbell. I began my training by following the little exercise poster that came with the set.  It’s the only thing I knew to use back then. My older sister (Lori) was in high school and many of her friends that knew me were impressed that I started to weight train.

 Many of her friends dabbled at the school weight room and knew a little about training. They all were ready to give me their advice on training. Many of them also read the muscle magazines, which were readily available at the subway newsstands in those days. You would stop by the newsstand before or after class and purchase the magazines of your choice. The magazine of choice for them was Joe Weider’s Muscle and Fitness magazine. I did not know about this publication being that I just started training. The first time I saw a Muscle and Fitness magazine was when my mom sent me to the local pharmacy to pick up a prescription. When I got there, I waited for the prescription to be filled. While I waited, I walked over to the loaded magazine rack the store had. On this rack I saw my first issue of Muscle & Fitness. On the cover were Lyn Conkright and Chris Dickerson winning a couples posing contest, which was a very popular form of bodybuilding competition back then; it no longer exists today. The price tag on the magazine was three dollars.

I wanted to buy it but did not have the money. My older sister who was working a summer Job gave me the three dollars to buy the magazine. I immediately ran to the pharmacy and bought the issue of the magazine. After buying the magazine, I ran home and began pouring through the pages. At that time (and still today) I was a comic book fan. I would watch the incredible hulk on TV, which starred Mr. Universe Lou Ferrigno. The program would come on at 8:00 o’clock on Fridays. I noticed that Lou Ferrigno was featured in the magazine. At that time Lou Ferrigno was the only bodybuilder I was familiar with so I immediately knew who he was. Then I would read about this Austrian person named Arnold Schwarzenegger and about how he won the 1980 Mr. Olympia. Amazing stuff. What really appealed to me were all of the Weider ads for protein supplements, vitamins and the Weider barbell sets. I would see all of the champions posing with all of the Weider products. These champions would give Joe Weider all of the credit for their success and credit to his barbells and supplements and also his training principles.

As I read the magazine, I thought that the only way to build your body successfully was to use all of the Weider products. Since it made the champs who they are then I should be able to use the same things. I remember all of this with nostalgia. Very happy times. I equated all things Joe Weider with bodybuilding. I would devour all of the training routines and use them when I trained with my plastic weight set. I did not have a weight bench in those days so I got two milk crates from the store and put them together to form a weight bench I could lay on and perform bench press movements. For cushioning, I would use a folded bed sheet. I felt like everything was so wonderful. Shortly after that I started high school. I continued to buy the Weider magazines both Muscle & Fitness and Flex. I purchased many of the supplemental products advertised in Joe Weider’s magazines at the Herman’s sporting goods store. Shortly after that, for my 16th birthday my mom bought me the Weider golden weight set along with the Marcy Monster bench. The weight set was purchased at Herman’s sporting goods and the bench was purchased at T.S.S. Why do I tell you all of this, well because these were the most wonderful times growing up. It was times like these that make me who I am today. The amazing thing about all this is that I still have the equipment and the magazines I started out with except for the plastic weight set. I eventually gave that away when I began purchasing the iron weight sets.

I remember the time in the late 80’s when many new magazines, newsletters and books on bodybuilding began on the “bashing Weider” campaign. I think once an Iconic figure becomes fully famous, Like Vince McMahon from Wrestling, many will come out of the woodwork to try and destroy your character. Joe Weider was not perfect, and I would say somewhat of a hypocrite due to his silly anti steroid campaign with those phony horror stories, but Joe Weider basically made the world of physique development what it is today. I have nothing but admiration and positive associations with Joe Weider and the Bodybuilding Lifestyle, even today and hopefully always. I remember using all of the Weider principles described in his Magazines.  Magazines. I later came to realize that Weider was not the original creator of those training techniques but were created by the superstars featured in his magazines. Joe just decided to rename them and make them his own. A master marketer. Either way, these techniques did work. I also remember performing marathon training sessions believing that I needed to do all of the training exercises described in his books and courses. Well, times have definitely changed for me. I am a lot more knowledgeable now and exactly know what to do for my body type, and know what kind of training to do. This comes with experience due to the fact that, as of this writing, I have been training for 30years now. I will always remember Joe Weider. He did impact my life for the better. May God bless his surviving family.

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Words of Wisdom - Training Compilation

The Bodybuilding Lifestyle

The Bodybuilding Lifestyle


By Leon Cruz

 Several years ago Joe Weider was being interviewed by one of the news shows that air on Sunday nights. I forget which one, but something Joe Weider said stuck with me. Mr. Weider said that Bodybuilding is comprised of three concepts or three things, and he said: “Bodybuilding is a Sport, an Art and a Lifestyle.” The concept I would like to focus on is the lifestyle aspect of bodybuilding. Long after a bodybuilders competitive career is over, whether amateur or professional, training usually continues or (should continue in my opinion). If you look at the bodybuilders of the Golden Era like, Frank Zane, Dave Draper, Larry Scott, Lou Ferrigno, Ric Drasin and such, you will notice that many of them are still training and also running businesses that are bodybuilding based. The Lifestyle of eating healthy, taking nutritional supplements and the partaking of daily exercise is what many of the muscle magazines and fitness periodicals have been endorsing since the time of Eugene Sandow. This is long before there was even competitive physique contests and contests of strength (Power lifting, Olympic Lifting and Strong man contests). Martin “Farmer” Burns published his personal training course “Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture” back in the 1920’s and 30’s. He knew the value of exercise and training whether for wrestling or using wrestling as exercise to keep fit. The physical labor that Farmer Burns did contributed to his strength and longevity, which helped him in wrestling. Bob Hoffman, also new the value of a lifestyle based on strength training and healthy eating. Bob Hoffman wasn't born one of the strongest, fittest men in the world, but after working to become just that in his twenties, he spent the balance of his life encouraging others to follow.  At sixty, he could still lift 250 pounds over his head with one hand, break chains with his 52-inch chest, and, when the impulse struck, strap an anvil to his stomach, lie down on the ground, and let his buddies bang away with a sledgehammer.

Passionate as he was about lifting as a sport, he was interested in selling more than a sport. Hoffman saw the enormous potential of selling hope, so he turned lifting into the platform from which he could preach a gospel of self-improvement based on a lifestyle and the physical culture of health and fitness. Not surprisingly, his earliest acolytes came from immigrant and ethnic backgrounds. Like football and baseball before it, lifting was a respite from the mills and the mines. Hoffman always emphasized that training was its own benefit–a benefit that produced a healthier and better life overall.
 With all this we begin to see that working out is much more than sport. We see fitness as a way to improve many lives. Getting into shape is something we all can do. Everyone can change and improve their current health and body image. To me there is NO other way to live. The Bodybuilding and fitness lifestyle has helped me accomplish the best shape of my life along with many other things. The confidence alone from getting in shape has done wonders for all aspects of my life. With the obesity rate in America continuing to spiral out of control, I really love the fact that the lifestyle I’m leading inspires people to make changes. The fitness lifestyle is not just about working out. It is also about being in overall great health and enjoying life the way it was and is meant to be enjoyed and improving the quality of life as we get older. That means being active EVERYDAY and training almost everyday as well. Typical results you can expect by taking on this lifestyle 100% will include a better SEX drive for those who are married, increased metabolism, which burns fat, physical appearance change, change in your mood, change in personality and much more. Everyone reading this newsletter should be partaking in a regimented lifestyle of exercise and nutritious eating and supplementing. Don’t put off what you can do today until tomorrow or until its too late.


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BODY BEAST REVIEW

BODY BEAST REVIEW

BY LEON CRUZ

  Beach Body, (a Fitness company founded back in 1997, became a house whole name due to its famous training program P90X,) has created another great training program named BODY BEAST.

I learned about body beast through an e-mail I received in my in box on August 2012 advertising the new training program. I immediately knew it was a body building program because of the person endorsing the course. The person endorsing the training program was Sagi Kalev. Sagi Kalev (born July 30, 1971 in Tel Aviv) is the former two-time "Mr. Israel" and fitness model, bodybuilding title-holder, and nutritionist who resides in Dallas, Texas. He immigrated to the United States back in 1993 to pursue his bodybuilding and modeling career.

Unlike P90X, Body Beast is strictly a bodybuilding program where P90X is a sports fitness program. Note: P90X can be incorporated into any bodybuilding program. Body Beast is a 90 day, 3 Phase program ( BUILD, BULK and BEAST ) consisting of 12 workouts and is designed for one thing, building lots of muscle mass.

I decided to purchase the training course and give it a try. I have been bodybuilding for many years, and I felt I needed a change of pace training program so I decided to commit to the 90 days.

The package has the option to include some supplements (the supplements are Creatine, Whey Protein and a carbohydrate powder. All of these supplements can be purchased much cheaper at www.dpsnutrition.net. Also, waxy maze is a better carbohydrate powder) and 3 bonus workouts, I purchased the basic package.

Equipment needed: The equipment needed makes this program very attractive indeed. Although I train at a commercial gym and have a decent home gym, none of that is required. The only tools needed are a chin-up bar, push-up bars, a set of dumbbells that progress from 5 pounds to about 70 pounds, and a multi purpose bench, which can decline, incline and position to a flat bench. In the video they also use one of those fitness stability balls, which I do not recommend.

The course is broken down into 3 phases.

PHASE ONE: BUILD - CHEST and TRICEPS - Time: 49 minutes

LEGS - Time: 38 minutes

BACK and BICEPS - Time: 50 minutes

SHOULDERS - Time: 38 minutes

CARDIO - Time: 30 minutes

PHASE TWO: BULK - CHEST - Time: 30 minutes

LEGS - Time: 41 minutes

BACK - Time: 29 minutes

ARMS - Time: 35 minutes

SHOULDERS - Time: 35 minutes

BEAST - ABS - Time: 10 minutes

PHASE THREE: BEAST - Once you have completed the BUILD and BULK Phases, the program has one more block called the BEAST Phase, which is a combination of workouts from the first 2 Phases.

During my experience using body beast, I noticed several things. Within the first two weeks of daily training I noticed that my muscle development improved all around. This could be attributed to what is called muscle memory. Remember that I have been training for many years. But, it felt really nice. Everything improved. I gained two to three inches on all muscle groups. Also, my body weight went from 240 pounds to 260 pounds with eight percent body fat. My strength went up two fold. My bench press went from 365 to 450. My dead lift went from 405 to 500 and my squat went from 405 to 500. Now, again remember about what I said before about the muscle memory thing. Now keep in mind that if I improved all over at my level, anyone at any level can improve at building their physiques.

Now, for the negative points to the program: Body Beast has practically no stretching to speak of and as such I believe this will make you more prone to injury over time. That’s why I personally would recommend incorporating flexibility or yoga into your regimen. This is where adding some of the P90X yoga and flexibility programs come in handy. One thing I learned over the years is that as bodybuilders and weight lifters, we should incorporate the four levels of fitness, which consists of Flexibility, Conditioning, strength, and body composition (Fat percentage). Diet and exercise that includes weight training and cardio will take care of the body composition, strength, and conditioning portion. For the flexibility part of the program, P90X’s stretching program or matt Furey’s Combat Stretching video courses will work very well. For training the abdominal, incorporating P90X’s Ab ripper X video would be a good idea as well.

Sagi Kalev uses old school bodybuilding techniques with the new school science training techniques. When following along with the videos, Sagi has you doing, progressive sets, force sets, giant sets, straight sets, super sets, and combo sets. All of these techniques have been proven to really stimulate and fire up the muscles. These techniques are truly what high intensity training is all about.

Along with the videos, the course comes with a book properly titled “The Book of Beast”. In the Book of Beast, you have a nice nutrition plan to follow. It’s all based on a formula, which has the athlete eating about 5 meals daily with about 3,000 calories a day. I find that if you have the P90X nutrition plan, you should follow that plan when using your body beast course. The P90X nutrition manual is simpler in its explanation than the Book of Beast nutrition plan and when done correctly, the P90X nutrition plan comes out to the same end result, which has one eating about 5 – 6 times daily with about 3,000 to 3500 calories daily with protein being the primary macro nutrient in the first phase.

Overall, I love the body beast program. Once your conditioning is up and you can get through the training intensity in the program, you can create your own hybrids to the program. You can include many of the P90X programs to the body beast course or you can incorporate a push pull training program, just follow the appropriate videos. For example; let’s say you are following a push pull program where you are training chest shoulders and triceps; you would use those videos coaching you on training those muscle groups and so forth. It’s a great way to break out of boredom. Using what I have discussed here will keep you gaining muscle mass and adding variety to your training program. And as we all know, variety is the spice of life when it comes to certain things especially building your Beast Body.

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