Do you know what separates real bodybuilders from wanna-be bodybuilders? Attention to detail. Anyone can proclaim they are a bodybuilder for the ego-boost or perceived social benefit among friends and peers, but to be a real

bodybuilder requires a giant step most are not willing to take: attention to detail. To become the best you can be requires detailed precision in all the bodybuilding disciplines: weight training, aerobics and nutrition. Detail manifests itself in many forms and one of the obvious is writing down plans and results. You would be positively amazed at how many bodybuilders (some quite accomplished) refuse to write down any nutrition or training data. These refuseniks are stuck in the Stone Age and no matter how good they might become I steadfastly maintain they would be far better bodybuilders if they developed the discipline to write down key pertinent data.

Why not chart progress in lifting, cardio and nutrition? Why not take advantage of all that science has to offer? If you are serious about being a bodybuilder at some point you’ll have to develop discipline and that includes the discipline to log results. A huge determining factor in bodybuilding success is that the bodybuilder is adept at A.) planning ahead and B.) analyzing past results. How can you plot a productive course of action in a mental vacuum? The old saying still rings true: “those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.” Log results with a passion; do it right, the more detail the better. Once a week, check over the cold, accumulated facts and try to spot trends and tendencies. Review of the results allows you to reflect and correct. Look hard at the historical data in order to plot the short and long term course of action. We are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past as long as we keep detailed tabs on ourselves; check and cross check data, compile and notate everything. Write down the results of our weight workouts and cardio sessions.

Nutritionally notate each and every bite or swallow we allow ourselves. Within each of the broad categories of fitness are a plethora of pertinent sub-divisions. Within the broad category of nutrition one specific sub-category pertains to determination of body fat percentile. The successful bodybuilder is always on the lookout for tools to help take the process to the next level. The winners make it a point to use all the tools at their disposal and one big gun in the arsenal is undergoing a weekly or bi-weekly 9-point skin-fold caliper reading. Determining body fat percentile on a weekly or bi-weekly basis provides you with invaluable information: are you, or are you not, improving? Body fat percentile either improves or worsens each week – are you moving ahead or backwards? If you know the answer you can make intelligent choices about future eating and training. If you are ignorant you are flying blind.

A set of calipers is a wonderful tool for the serious bodybuilder. Another important tool is a digital bodyweight scale to monitor body weight fluctuations. Sometimes deceptive, weighing at the same time each and every day gives a snap shot of where you are. Body weight stats need be compared and contrasted to body fat percentile testing otherwise you have no idea what percentage of increased muscle mass is fat versus what percent is muscle. What is the point of gaining ten pounds if eight of it is fat? Unless you use a digital scale with a body fat test, you can be fooled into drawing the wrong conclusions: because your body weight was static, you could conclude your diet approach was ineffectual when in fact you could be exchanging equal amounts of dense muscle of equal amounts of fluffy body fat. You could conceivably terminate a wonderfully effective program by drawing wrong conclusions based on incomplete data.

At some point you will have to come to grips with measuring and weighing your food. Do you have a food scale for weighing and measuring all those 100-gram portions of food? You are bound to progress faster when you monitor and manipulate all aspects of nutrition. You need a plan, the proper tools and the discipline and knowledge to enact the plan and correctly use the tools. Why maintain a stubborn reluctance? When it comes to evaluating progress, exactitude rules. Why guess? Write down what you eat, when and how much. List the nutrient breakdown for each food and notate current body weight. Use our patented Diet Trac sheets for compiling day-to-day nutritional statistics. Purchase a small, spiral notebook and use it expressly and exclusively as a training log.

Note the date and day, type of exercise, sets, reps, poundage and session length…write it all down. Ditto for key cardio information: include type of cardio exercise, length of session, distance covered and frequency. Data compilation allows you to make wise decisions using sound judgment. Review results, trace trends and identify both positive and negative tendencies as they become readily apparent. Every pre-planned program, no matter how suave or sophisticated, needs adjustments along the way and making the right changes at the right time requires logical thinking. A rational course of action can only be crafted after coming to clear conclusions using factual data. More exactness is required to take the bodybuilding experience to the next level. Attention to detail separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. A huge majority of elite bodybuilders plan ahead and log results. This should tell you something; card-carrying professionals to the man weigh their food and jot down every tiny detail. Inevitably and invariably, someone who goes to all the trouble and writes everything down punches through to the next level of physical development. Why else would anyone bother? The typical novice bodybuilder stays a novice because they cannot bring themselves to actually sit down and weigh food and log results and do the nutritional math. What a bother!

What a hassle! What a royal pain in the glutes! Is it really necessary? Yes! It is absolutely necessary if you want to be all you can be! It is my studied contention that what separates wanna-be bodybuilders from the real bodybuilders is the degree of exactitude a competitive bodybuilder utilizes compared to a wanna-be. The champion weighs every bite of food and calculates all calorie and nutrient values to an infinitesimal degree. The competitive bodybuilder will log cardio and weight training in great detail and at week’s end go over the data and see if training can be tweaked and improve in some manner or fashion. They ask; what lessons are to be learned and what beneficial modifications can be made in the coming week? What progressstimulating changes can be instituted based on conclusions drawn from the data? It takes quite a bit of work to log training and nutrition properly. At Parrillo Performance Products we have designed a series of publications and tools expressly for the bodybuilder who seeks to bust up to the next level.

Parrillo Nutrition Program: This over-sized binder is the Bible of nutrition. It is a work book designed for use by those serious about performance nutrition. The sections are structured to cover top-ics such as nutritional supplementation, the correct use of food, offseason eating guidelines, sample menus, pre-competition strategies and meal plans. The program also includes a food composition guide, Diet Trac sheets, the CapTri usage manual and CapTri cookbook, plus a supplement guide and 450- gram food scale. This comprehensive counterpart to the Parrillo Nutrition Program is a treasure-trove of information on all things training-related. Every body part is given its own section of exercises which are discussed in great, technical detail. Specific recuperative stretches are outlined. Also included are extensive exercise descriptions, Body Stat sheets, target fascial stretching, posing, program design, incorporating nutritional support for high intensity training, sets, reps, aerobic strategies and how to exceed genetic limitations. Parrillo Performance designed the Body Stat Kit to give bodybuilders a way to determine and monitor body fat.

The Kit includes a manual that instructs the user on how to administer a nine-point skin-fold caliper test, a high-grade skin-fold caliper and Body Trac sheets. Everything you need to measure, log and interpret body fat percentile.

Parrillo Computer Nutrition Program: Do you want to take it to the maximum? Try this hi-tech approach to nutrition. The program contains preloaded food nutrition values with comprehensive caloric tables that make for easy computation of protein/ fat/carb ratios. Added features include: food sort capability, recipe storage, and customization of a nutritional plan for months ahead. This comprehensive, multidimensional electronic tool is ready to be loaded onto your computer for everyday use. Use the tools and log and analyze results. See exactly what has occurred. What is the effect? Or lack of effectiveness? The unchanging mission of the true bodybuilder is to grow additional muscle and strip away body fat. A Parrillo Performance Products we always seek to meld the mental with the physical; we not only train hard – we train smart – and so should you. If you want to take your physique to the next level, get precise and write it down! Otherwise be content with being a wanna-be.

Parrillo Performance
(800) 344-3404 

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