Some Things Never Change

Pals: Len Romano, Dave, Ed Corney, Dr. Ken Leistner
Bomber Bash, July 14, 2001, Santa Cruz, California

Preparing a book of instruction based on research and experience, musing and documentation is an unfolding process. That is, you learn new facts, recall ground once covered, arrive at new conclusions, as well as gain reassurance about original ideas. Occasionally, amidst the compiling of information an insight penetrates your being like a flash. Remember the first time you accidentally whistled or really noticed the difference between a boy and a girl? Well, something like that.

Let me recount something I noticed while reviewing my early training and diet experimentation. In the early Sixties there weren't a lot in the way of solid facts to follow and one relied on trial and error to set one's course — arguably, more direct and less confusing than today where stacks of sophisticated information abound. I was confronted with the difficult process of gaining bodyweight that begged for muscular size and shape. At six foot and two hundred thirty pounds I was seeking to gain another twenty pounds of bulk.

I was a recent New Jersey transplant to Santa Monica, California, where the remnants of Muscle Beach resided. The beach scene had receded but the bodybuilding energy and learning and growing had not. The atom was accelerating. I, by osmosis, took on the training principles that dominated the iron game during this shift from the beach to The Dungeon, the new underground digs for the relocated muscleheads. Powerlifting was infiltrating the ranks of the slick bodybuilders and super-size was gaining popularity. At the same time none of us wanted to sacrifice muscularity; at least, we wanted to retain as much as we could while packing on the pounds. Some things never change.

This was accomplished according to one's own madness, although there were common threads that were woven through the menus of the progressive lifters: high protein and low carbs with the fats being relatively high in that red meat, eggs and milk products played primary roles. Salads were big-time favorites and tuna fish somehow took on an importance similar to that of oxygen. The bad boys carried jugs of water. There were no girls.

Notice the trend being set by the greatest researchers this side of the moon. Protein: high. Fat: high. Carbs: low.

I set off to gain weight and get strong while expecting the muscular size to grow according to the big food intake and the intense power-accented bodybuilding regimens. It worked. It took time, hard work, patience, discipline and perseverance. These, too, I accumulated along the way.

It was during my recent recollections that I recognized a component of the mass-seeking process that coincidentally matched recent scientific consensus.

Bulking up day in and day out can be as difficult as losing weight. It can be as frustrating and delirious, as disheartening and dull. I eventually, through survival and need of relief, began a practice of eating with stoic deliberation during the week to serve me and power me through my work and workouts. The hardcore bulking phase came on the weekends when time and relaxation were to be found and smorgasbord specials were in abundance at the best coastal restaurants. I packed in the calories in all shapes and sizes on Saturdays and Sundays. I ate very well, until my eyes bulged.

There were additional attributes beyond the variety and change of pace. I was exceedingly strong for several days after the bulking phase and capitalized on this in the gym for big and heavy workouts; I was tight and pumped with great satisfaction and had a sense of overall well-being. I did this regularly for three years. Two to three months out of the year when the summer rolled around and competition or photo sessions were in the works, the leaning techniques were installed. I deduced that the added weight included a percentage of muscle mass accounting for the increased power, energy and well-being, the pump came from the fuel provided by the carbs and the tightness came from the bloat of bodyweight. The logic, which I shared with my buddies, was reasonably correct on all accounts.

We're getting close to my pea-brain observation. The diets that interest me today as I see them laid out in book and booklet are the ones that endorse this system of steady, healthy food intake in the balances I instinctively prefer for five days, followed by a heavy loading phase for two days (anything goes). Sound familiar?

The proponents of these diet procedures are doctors and researchers and recognized experts in the muscle building and nutritional field. These gentlemen go further than I in explaining the facts behind the muscle building-fat burning properties of this up-down feeding mechanism. (Duh... I like it?) It has been discovered that the hormones intricately involved in muscular growth — testosterone, growth hormone and insulin — are positively impacted by the scheme. These body-shaping and energy-producing hormones can be manipulated by your eating plan to bring about the changes you seek.

What I perceived as bulking up for two days until I was satisfied (couldn't stand the discomfort and bloat anymore) turns out to have been an undeveloped and unheralded version of the popular hormone-adjusting, muscle-building plans put forth by Dr. Fred Hatfield (Zigzag Diet), Dr. Mauro DiPasquale (The Metabolic Diet) and Rob Faigin (Natural Hormonal Enhancement). I regulated the weekend bulking phase of the diet because I was sure the added quick weight would remain as long term, insistent fat. This would not do. As suggested by the wise and studious experts, the bulking phase provides a surge of carbs (sugar), thus stimulating insulin production. These in turn cause intracellular glucose loading and cellular hydration, the perfect setting for intense training. The intense training stimulates GH and testosterone levels. We're in paradise.

However, this environment of intense anabolic stimulus has a capricious efficiency span that needs to be individually monitored. The bulking phase is simply overeating and practiced long term and indiscriminately will add fat. It might very well disrupt insulin sensitivity and cause type 2 diabetes, the disease of the 90s. It seems we have a world of people practicing the bulking up phase of the plan with notable focus yet failing to include the intense training.

As Dr. Squat prescribes, Zigzag your way.

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