Fred Rowlett>Kansas City Super-Trainer
Fred Rowlett has been a Parrillo-influenced personal trainer for the past fifteen years. He remembers how he first came across the Parrillo approach and how times were so very different back in 1990 when he first
Marla Battles
began preparing bodybuilders for competition. “I had been an athlete all my life and was quite familiar with the basic bodybuilding premises of the time. My wife was in the Army and wanted to qualify for a physically grueling field medical classification. I agreed to help get her into shape and that’s how it all started. Someone in the gym we trained at gave me a copy of the Parrillo Performance Press and that was my first introduction to this unique, controversial and unorthodox philosophy.” As a teacher and educator the unorthodox nature of the Parrillo approach appealed to Fred’s scientific mindset – yet these methods were completely counterintuitive to the accepted practices of the day. “Back then, the orthodox thinking was incredibly backwards.
At the time fruit was considered a mainstay of bodybuilding nutrition and bodybuilders would tell us, ‘Fruit is the best thing in the world for a serious bodybuilder. You need to eat lots of apples and oranges.’” Fred now laughs at the backwardness of those “cutting-edge” nutritional practices. “Heck we’d drink big glasses of orange juice every morning to go with our milk and cereal. When Parrillo pointed out that fructose and milk sugar made fruit and dairy unacceptable bodybuilding foods, it was as if he’d said the moon was made of green cheese.” Fred was a science and math teacher and his wife held an advanced medical degree and when the duo turned their considerable gray matter to analyzing the Parrillo pronouncements they were impressed. They decided to drop their orthodox bodybuilding approach and try the radical Parrillo methods. “We started by utilizing the Parrillo training methods.
Things really started to pop when we combined the training with John’s high calorie/low fat nutritional approach. It was amazing how quickly and dramatically Jan responded.” Project Jan began to gather momentum. “We began utilizing the Parrillo training and eating methods in earnest. After a few short months Jan’s results were so amazing that she decided to enter her first physique competition.” Up until this juncture they had used Parrillo training and nutrition methods but continued to use store-bought supplements, not Parrillo products. “We decided to go full-bore Parrillo and ordered a big pile of John’s supplements. Within a matter of weeks we began seeing even more results. It was the final piece of the puzzle.” Jan entered her first physique competition and not only captured her class but took the overall title. Fred remembered the universal reaction to his wife’s incredibly quick progression culminating in her win. “People began to say, ‘There is no way that girl isn’t taking performance enhancing drugs and chemicals!’ It was, in a way, a compliment and a testament to how effective the new training and nutritional methods really were.” Fred Rowlett was then approached by a number of local bodybuilders who’d seen how far Jan had come in such a short period of time. “Competitive bodybuilders began approaching me and asking, ‘Fred I want you to do for me what you’ve done for Jan.’”
It was the beginning of Fred’s new career as a Parrillo Personal Trainer. Fast-forward fifteen years: Fred Rowlett is a drug-free bodybuilding trainer legend in the Midwest. “I currently work with fifty clients (all I can handle!) on a weekly basis. Forty of them compete either in bodybuilding or Figure competition. Every one of them uses Parrillo Products and Parrillo training methodology.” The exactitude and precision of the Parrillo approach appealed to Mr. Rowlett. “I converse with John on a regular weekly basis and I’m continually impressed with the depth of his scientific knowledge. I love his ability to discuss the hard science of nutrition on a chemical and molecular level.
He’s a fountain of knowledge and I quiz him continually.” Fred Rowlett underwent a second Parrillo epiphany when he traveled to Cincinnati to participate in a Parrillo Boot Camp. Fred said that it was a mind-blowing experience. “My entire approach to weight training and aerobics was turned on its head when I attended the Boot Camp five years ago. It’s almost become a cliché for those who’ve attended a boot camp or certification seminar but – I THOUGHT I was training hard! Was I ever in for a shock! To put it politely…they beat the living daylights out of us! It was fabulous! It totally redefined for me what was possible and how much muscle growth potential there is, assuming the training intensity is off the charts and underpinned with lots of quality calories. In order to survive and thrive, nutritional raw materials (food) must be continually supplied to a body subjected to this incredibly intense approach.”
Fred’s rude awakening was two-fold: Day I of Boot Camp was devoted to weight training and Day II was an aerobic training marathon. “John, Brian and Franco pushed us so far past our limits that I personally thought I might die at different points during the lifting and cardio process. People were throwing up right and left and the screaming must have sounded like someone was being murdered.” Despite the discomfort and pain connected with the two day enduro, he came away convinced that this was breakthrough stuff that would enable him to push his ever-growing stable of competitive athletes onward and upward to the next level. “I knew what I had learned at Parrillo Boot Camp had immediate applicability for my clients back in Kansas.” Fred Rowlett came away from Boot Camp a changed man. He took back to Kansas City his revelations and began sharing and applying this radically different approach. Within a matter of months he took an entire group of people to the next level of physical development. “You know what I learned from Parrillo Camp? I learned if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger – and bigger! I reassessed my own physical and psychological limitations all as a direct result of what I was shown and subjected to. At the Boot Camp we trained incredibly long, incredibly hard and incredibly heavy.
John and Dominique fed us all day long and I realized that food – fuel – could be used to extend the intensity and duration of weight training. John told us something at the beginning of camp that stuck in my head ever since, ‘There is no such thing as over-training – only under-eating!’ By the end of that two day camp I knew exactly what he meant.” Jan, an Army anesthesiologist, became one of the nation’s leading drug-free female bodybuilders and in the interceding five years Fred’s reputation grew by leaps and bounds. In 2004 Fred decided to take a sabbatical from teaching middle-school Jan Rowlettmathematics and devote all his energies to personal training. He’d been juggling teaching and training and was in perpetual motion from 5 in the morning until 11 at night with no weekend respites. “I was working all day as a teacher then handling dozens of clients in the evenings and on weekends. It was getting to a point where I was burning myself out. I decided to take a break from teaching and devote myself fulltime to personal training.” Nutrition is the flip side of the training coin. Fred is quite articulate on how he structures the nutritional approach that compliments and “underpins” the intense training he uses. “It would be impossible to train as hard and often as I insist my athletes train and not eat often and eat lots and lots of food. For starters I want everyone to consume 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight – that’s essential! Build the metabolism! We track everything. Starch is usually eaten until lunch then dispensed with for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that everyone is different but by way of quick example, a 200-pound bodybuilder under my direction would eat at least 7,000 to 8,000 calories of food a day.”
Supplements are not an option. “The only supplements I recommend are Parrillo supplements. The only sport nutrition bars my folks are allowed to eat are Parrillo Bars. We consume CapTri® to kick upward the daily calorie totals. I am a huge believer that hard trainers need lots of branch-chain amino acids. We take Parrillo Muscle Amino formulation™ before cardio and before a workout. We consume at least 8-10 capsules every day. I have a communal jar of Muscle Amino Formula™ in my office. People will come in and scoop out a handful and eat them like M&M’s.” In Fred-World Muscle Amino Formulation™ is “The King.” Fred was very high on another Parrillo product. “Mineral Electrolyte Formulation™ is another extremely important supplement. Despite working past capacity, no one cramps up during training and muscles always look good and muscles always look full. We love Mineral Electrolyte formulation™.” Parrillo Hi-Protein Powder™ is the protein powder of choice. “I like the slow-release properties of caseinate protein and Hi-Protein™ is the mainstay of our supplemental protein.” Fred is equally enthused about the new generation of Parrillo engineered foods. “The Parrillo Hi-Protein Pudding™, the Parrillo Cake Mix™, and Parrillo Pancakes™ – all are great tasting acceptable treats. When the cake mix first came out I thought, ‘Wait a minute! This stuff tastes waaaay to good to be legal!’” Fred insists all new trainees ‘switch out’ whatever supplements they have been using for Parrillo products. “I need product purity.
With so many bogus nutritional products on the market I need the people I work with to use Parrillo products because they are pure and potent.” As if the ever-in-motion Rowlett’s weren’t busy enough already, Fred is the president of the nation’s fastest growing drug free-bodybuilding organizations, the North American Natural Bodybuilding Federation. Fred travels extensively attending NANBF shows. “In 2006 the NANBF put on 25 shows and in 2007 we’ll have 40 shows. We’ve really taken off: in addition to putting on shows all over the United States we’ve had shows in Japan, China and England.” With over 5,000 members Fred’s Federation
Parrillo Hi-Protein
is growing faster than a wildfire fed by the Santa Ana winds and his frequent flier miles are piling up faster than Paris Hilton’s monthly credit card bill. “Recently I traveled to Minnesota, Chicago, Iowa, Wisconsin, Augusta for NANBF shows. Then I put on my own bodybuilding show here in Kansas City. Then I was off to Saint Louis and Las Vegas before I headed out once again to Minnesota, Saint Louis, Chicago and New York…all this between April and November! I expect to have an even heavier travel schedule next year as we’ll be adding a lot of new shows.”
Fred is excited about the Federation’s future and feels that he’s tapped into something. “It seems that bodybuilders, Fitness and Figure competitors love the format of the NANBF. The membership is growing by leaps and bounds.” Fred is also excited about returning to Cincinnati with a group of Kansas trainees to attend another Parrillo training camp in 2007. “I am really excited about taking a big group to another Boot Camp – my only hope is that it will be as intense and tough as it was five years ago!” To say Fred Rowlett is on a roll would be a massive understatement. His success is directly attributable to a rare combination of brains, organizational genius and a demonstrated ability to elicit gains from anyone tough enough and smart enough to use the Parrillo methodology he preaches. “We do what we do and we never compromise the methods in order to attract business. We never water down the methods and always get results.” Plain talk from a man Marla Battleswho knows exactly who he is and exactly where he is headed.
Parrillo Performance
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