Want to improve your physique? Want to lift more poundage during the workout? Want to miss fewer workouts? Want to train harder, train longer, train more often and take your physique up to the next level?

Then find a training partner and all this great stuff will come to pass. Nothing causes a bodybuilder to train harder or more often than knowing that someone is waiting for them at the steel house and will be watching while they perform each and every set. It makes it about twenty times more difficult to blow off a workout when you have a training partner or two counting on you to show up. You can be sure that if a training partner is watching you as you lift, you’ll give 110% on each set. If you want to get really strong in the various exercises you’ll need to have spotters.

Safety is important and if you don’t have a spotter (or preferably two) you’ll never be able to go all out in heavy squats and bench presses. A spotter allows you to extend your limits while keeping you safe. A training partner helps you squeeze out extra reps and by pushing past current limits you literally force a muscle to grow larger and stronger. And speaking of forcing growth, by having a training partner/spotter you’ll be able to practice forced reps. Is there a more growth-inducing procedure than a perfectly administered forced rep? (The perfect forced rep is a tricky procedure: not too much help, not too little help, just enough help to enable you to finish the rep) Forced reps are impossible without a competent training partner. The ideal training partner is motivated and determined to succeed. You too should exhibit these characteristics and expect them of whom ever you select as a training partner. Use the golden rule to determine how to spot each other: spot as alertly as you would want them to spot you. If you are at a loss as to how to find a training partner, start by posting a notice on the gym bulletin board. Don’t be afraid to turn a potential training partner down if they seem weird, less than serious or not focused.

WAKE UP EARLY FOR A CARDIO SESSION: Is there a more effective fat burning strategy than performing aerobics before breakfast? Ever wonder why elite bodybuilders universally go to the trouble to wake up early and hit a cardio session before eating? Early morning cardio has proven itself a super effective strategy for burning off body fat. After sleeping all night without eating any carbohydrates, upon arising the body is low on glycogen. The body’s favorite fuel is glycogen. If the body is subjected to a high intensity aerobic session when glycogen stores are low, stored body fat is burned to fuel the aerobic activity. This prebreakfast cardio procedure is so effective that it has become standard operating procedure for competitive bodybuilders worldwide. These athletes don’t get up early because they like the fresh morning air; they get up and hit cardio early because it works. Take a tip from the bodybuilding elite and get up before breakfast and perform an intense aerobic session. If you make the sacrifice and exchange sleep for a high intensity aerobic session, within three weeks you will see a dramatic improvement in your physique. Of course if you eat poorly and make bad nutritional decisions then the early morning cardio effort is totally wasted. Smart bodybuilders consume a Parrillo 50-50 Plus shake immediately after finishing the early morning aerobic workout as this replenishes glycogen and revitalizes the athlete after a tough session.

SIMPLIFY THE WORKOUT: Too many rookie bodybuilders try and squeeze too many exercises into each and every workout. Far better to concentrate on a few key core exercises and jettison the superfluous, ineffectual minor exercises. Don’t sacrifice training poundage for training volume: a longer training session is not necessarily a better training session. Try not to clutter up the session with a bunch of dinky isolation exercises done on machines using peewee poundage your mother could lift. Real bodybuilders build their routines around Old School barbell and dumbbell exercises: squats, leg presses, heavy calf raises, overhead presses, press behind the neck, rows, chins, pulldowns, cleans, deadlifts, bench presses, incline presses, dips, heavy standing curls, preacher curls, nosebreakers and tricep pushdowns. The smart bodybuilder seeks to get strong as hell in these core exercises and by doing so they grow massive. The core movements should get the lion’s share of available training time. Any training time leftover can be filled with the minor isolation exercises and machine exercises.

Too many rookie trainers spend way too much time working on the ‘beach muscles:’ pecs, upper lats, abs, delts and biceps. If they don’t change this onedimensional approach to training they end up top heavy and look like “a midget riding an ostrich” to quote Iron Vic. How many times have you seen a young bodybuilder fill a workout with set after set of bench press, inclines, then declines, pec dec and cable crossovers. They roll right into deltoids with machine presses, Arnold press, ten different types of lateral raises using teeny little dumbbells and finish with all types of cable lateral raises. Then it’s time for arm training: preacher curls, barbell curls, cable curls, tricep kickbacks and three different types of cable pushdowns – then its time for abs – all this takes hours. These misguided types perform so many exercises they are forced to use itty-bitty weights. Tiny poundage equates to tiny muscles. Do yourself a favor if you fall into this category and reduce the sheer number of exercises. Make sure all body parts receive equal representation. Get strong: push the training poundage up. The secret to getting really big muscles is handling really significant poundage.

USE YOUR SUPPLEMENTS PROPERLY: One mistake many young athletes make is to use supplements incorrectly. Parrillo nutritional supplements are designed to supplement not replace regular foods. Too many bodybuilders use their supplements as a crutch and drink a protein shake or eat a sport nutrition bar instead of eating a prepared bodybuilding meal. Optimally Parrillo supplements are used in conjunction with a balanced bodybuilding meal.

Too often young bodybuilders are in a rush or are lazy and don’t take the time to properly prepare a balanced bodybuilding meal. Instead they woof down a Parrillo bar or two and call that a meal. This is expensive and not the intended purpose of nutritional supplements. Parrillo supplements go further and are more effective if used properly. Don’t be lazy, take the afternoon and prepare chicken breasts, steamed veggies, rice, potatoes, fish and lean beef for the coming week. Store massive quantities in the refrigerator and each day pack individual meals in Tupperware containers to take to work or school. Bring meals to life in the microwave and enjoy real food meals. Use your supplements in conjunction with these meals and don’t forget to drizzle each meal with CapTri® in order to boost caloric content. Parrillo supplemental protein powder (Optimized Whey™ and Hi-Protein ™) can be brought to life in a matter of seconds when shook vigorously in a Tupperware jug mixed with cold water. Pro Carb is irreplaceable for individuals seeking to add muscle mass and 50-50 Plus is an absolute post-workout must.

Parrillo bars offer portable nutrition that can be stored anywhere: glove compartment, office desk drawer, file cabinet or gym bag. In an ideal world Parrillo nutritional supplements are used to supplement perfectly balanced bodybuilding meals. Consult the Parrillo Nutrition Manual to learn how best to use these amazing products properly.

DON’T GET LOCKED INTO ONE PARTICULAR EXERCISE MODE: Be sure and periodically shake things up. Have you fallen into the trap of always doing one particular type of cardio using the same machine for the same

duration at the same pace? If so, gains likely are a thing of the past. Have you fallen into the trap of doing the same weight training exercises in the same order on the same days using the same poundage for the same number of repetitions? If so it’s highly unlikely that you are in for any significant progress.

The human body needs to be continually challenged and unless you periodically shake things up the body will find a way to negate results. Make sure that you routinely change various aspects of training. Don’t fall in love with a particular cardio device; vary the mode, vary the intensity and vary the duration. Don’t be afraid to switch weighttraining exercises and remember to work different rep ranges. The biggest mistake you can make is to develop a fanatical allegiance to one particular way of doing things. Humans are naturally creatures of habit and we all have to fight against the urge to do the same thing in the same way over and over and over… If you are at a loss for ideas call Parrillo HQ and we’ll be happy to help you inject variety and vitality into stale training.

Recent Entries

• Good Fats for Good Health
• Bodybuilding after Y2K
• Vitamins and Minerals Part II
• Shape Up in Eight Weeks The Easy Way
• Kelly Greene
• Parrillo Bars for Every Fitness Need
• Regaining Your Weight Loss “Oomph”
• Jennifer Hendershott > USA Fitness Champion
• Intensity, Psyche, Concentration and the Mind
• The Five P’s

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm and is filed under General Training and Workout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.