Pro-Shop Diaries (Part Five)

Memoirs of Glory: Expert Commentary from the Cheap-seats

By: Rusty Traufeé 'Midwest Muscle Legend'
No Nonsense Newsletter Volume 13 #4

"So how's he looking?"

Nathan Hagedorn (age 17) really dialed it in for the 2008 NPC Northern KY teenage division.
Nathan really focused on his conditioning and presentation and earned the 2^nd place trophy for his efforts.

"It all has come together exactly as planned," I proudly said, as pleased with David’s shredded physique as I would be if it were my own. "Here’s your tickets. Eddie, Heather and Holly are already saving our seats." I handed Doug his admission pass without the traditional 20% handling fee, just glad to have everyone from the gym sitting together.

One of my prize pupils, David, had worked hard and was competing in the novice class of a local drug-tested show on the very stage in which I had last competed. Decades later, my controversial second-place finish is still being heatedly argued at local gyms. I’d like to think it’s even being argued sometimes when I’m not there to bring it up.

I sit down with Heather and Holly (two of our more attractive gym members who have earned so much respect from gym members that they no longer are unmercilessly hit on) and Eddie McBride (a local physique champ that is impossible not to like). To me, this comradery is what it is all about. Even though bodybuilding is one of the most solitary sports imaginable, the all-consuming preparation is made so much easier when you create a core group of gym supporters. We all had helped David get ready for his first trip under the lights and today was the day to view the end results.

"All set with the camera, Heather?" I ask, knowing the vital importance of capturing the moment. " Once the day is over, those images can be lost forever. I am certainly glad I got photos from when I competed here back in ’72 and I know you all have admired the pictures on the wall."

I notice everyone in our circle roll their eyes in unison (no doubt fondly recalling the 11"x17" glossies of me that adorn the cardio area. "Oh, we remember," Eddie says. "I have seen people arrange for someone to catch their posing routine on camera, but you are the only guy I know that hired his own photographer and caricature artist."

"...And three decades of Rusty Gym™ members have benefitted from that artistry," I quickly add.

Doug was the newest member of our crew. As a natural ectomorph that has gradually packed on a few pounds of solid weight, I thought seeing some conditioned but attainable drug-free physiques would go a long way towards keeping his level of inspiration high (after all, the kid can only focus his idolatry on just me so much). He singles out a novice competitor the looks a bit overclassed in the line-up. “That guy doesn’t look like a lifter..." Doug points out with a confused look on his face.

"He may not quite be as ready as the other competitors," I conceded, "but all of the competitors are worthy of our admiration... I know what you’re thinking ? easy for me to say with my pro-level genetics... but everyone on that stage, from the overall winner to the non-placers, have done amazing things with their physiques. They set a goal for themselves and devoted months of their lives towards achieving it. Some of them started getting ready for this a year ago, just striving to improve over their physique of last year."

"Just getting on that stage makes them champs," Eddie McBride says, his love of the sport obvious. "My first time on stage was a disaster. I was training in my parents’ basement at the time and thought I was in shape. My ‘posing trunks’ had a Fruit of the Loom label on the back and on the day of the show, I thought I was holding water. Looking back, I realize I was holding blubber. The crowd was encouraging even though I didn’t even place. A week later, I signed up at Rusty’s Gym and haven’t missed a workout since."

"Everyone wants to win, but your final placement is just the opinion of nine judges based on how you look on that one day. Their opinions matter since everyone on that panel is a veteran of the sport but no one’s opinion matters as much as your own," I wisely say. "As long as you gave it your all and have improved, then you have every right to feel proud."

The lightweight awards are handed out by an elegantly beautiful woman that had won the overall figure title here the year before. The congratulatory kiss planted on the winner’s cheek that would have been a fantasy for most men, went pretty much unnoticed due to the sensory overload of winning his first physique class title.

"That guy looked great...," Doug said, an obvious lead-in to a question. "There were guys with some better individual body parts but he was balanced and in great shape. Did he just have better genetics?"

"He didn’t even make the top six last year," Eddie adds. "He’s really transformed himself."

"He went to school," I add. “After last year’s show the judges told him what areas he needed to work on. He showed up at my pro-shop, bought some Beverly products and took home back issues of the No Nonsense Newsletter. I could tell he was applying what he had learned. Every few months, I would see him looking fuller and leaner. The people at Beverly advised him on his diet and that allowed him to kick up his training a notch. He became a real student of the game."

"Where did you learn nutrition?" the kid asks me.

"Same place," I say. "There wasn’t a No Nonsense Newsletter back in those days but I did have a mentor. I attended a local contest even smaller than this one. Afterwards, while the fans were all mobbing the guest poser, I was picking the brain of this nutrition guru named Jim Heflin. Heflin worked with more bodybuilders, both champions and real people, than anyone in the game. Not only did I learn that I was not eating enough protein, but the protein I was using before then was low quality. He was the owner and formulator of the original Beverly products. You could tell he was making the best stuff possible because that’s what he wanted to use and he loved helping other people improve their health and physique. His advice from thirty years ago is still valid today!"

"I’ve read about him," Doug excitedly says. "I have absorbed every megabyte of info on the Beverly site. I’ve read all the back issue articles posted on there and even have become friends with some regulars on the online forum."

"Showtime!" Eddie interrupts, pointing to the stage as David and the rest of the middleweight class file out into view. David walks confidently out, broad-shouldered and lean with tight skin and a narrower waist than any of us would have predicted six months ago when he declared his intention of competing. He had followed his diet to a T, added in some special Beverly pre-contest products and increased his training volume while keeping heavy weights on his core exercises. He was ready!

Heather had walked to the front of the stage and was snapping away with the camera as the rest of us swelled with pride. "He’s really dialed it in," Eddie proclaims; his own closetful of contest trophies added credence to the comment.

"He looks great!" Doug exclaims. Seeing great physiques is inspirational but seeing a transformation like this with someone you know really opens your mind to your own potential. "How does the supplement plan change when you get ready for a contest?"

David made the first call out and was holding up well during the mandatory comparisons. You could tell he had to remind himself to smile at the audience from time to time but he was doing a great job holding the positions Eddie and I had drilled into his head.

"When supplementing to get shredded, it is a three-stage strategy," I lecture. "Of course you cut out the junk and lower your carb intake, but first off you need to make sure you cover all the nutrition basics just as you have in the off-season. This means you take your Super-Pak, your healthy fats and drink your Beverly shakes. If you were drinking two shakes a day, you will need three since we will be replacing some of your daily carb calories with protein. If you followed a good off-season diet you should be starting out in decent shape."

"Secondly, the reduced calories and increased exercise and cardio will be more than you are used to. We want to burn fat but it is easy to lose some muscle while doing this. To avoid that, we use special high quality aminos. David was taking Density tablets with his meals. They provided him with easily-absorbed essential aminos, ensuring that he eliminated any rate-limiting amino acids. Before and after his workouts he took a dose of Muscle Synergy. Muscle Synergy contains arginine, HMB, creatine and aminos, which contribute to the fullness and pump he is showing onstage. He also continued to drink Glutamine Select during his workout just as he had done in the off-season."

"What about caffeine/ephedra fat-burners? Every muscle mag is jammed full of ads for products guaranteed to jack you up...," Doug asks.

"David has been dieting for sixteen weeks," I reply. "You can’t get rid of years’ worth of accumulated body fat in a week or two. All a strong central nervous system stimulant would do, if taken for that long of a time period, would be to flatten him out and make it hard for him to sleep at night. There are some great Beverly products he used to encourage fat-burning without the concern of adrenal burnout you have with other fat burners."

"First off, EFA Gold keeps his metabolism primed and energy levels up. As he started to work in more high-intensity interval training on the treadmill, we added in Lean Out. Lean Out contains L-carnitine and a blend of fat emulsifiers and fat burning co-factors. This gave him all of the fat-burning metabolic factors to encourage fat loss without stimulants. L-carnitine encourages the breakdown of fat and it’s use as fuel in the mitochondria. In the last 8 weeks we included 7-Keto MuscLean, extra L-carnitine in the form of Beverly’s Energy Reserve, and he drank some green tea. Even this was a gradual thing with him drinking one cup of green tea and a half dose of 7-Keto MuscLean the first two weeks. Two weeks later, we doubled the MuscLean to a full dose and for the last month he drank 2-3 cups of green tea and took a full dose of MuscLean in the morning and a second one before his afternoon cardio work. Too many people try to force a metabolic response with a max dose of a thermogenic. You are better to start with very little so that you can gradually increase things, if needed. Too much CMS stimulation just leads to almost immediate adrenal burnout."

As the judges scrutinized the class, David seemed to be in call-outs with the best in the class. His slight, yet Saran Wrap-tight physique caught the eyes and the crispness of his midsection was particularly impressive. As they called out the placings, David ended up a respectable third. Well, his biased friends in our section of the seats felt he may have deserved to place better, the huge grin on his face as he clutched his trophy made it obvious that third was quite alright in David’s mind.

"So, any desire to get back up on stage yourself, Rust? Maybe see what a master’s show is all about?" Eddie asks as we file out of the auditorium.

"Nahhhh... my place is helping young, hungry guys like your and David look your best," I reply. But a part of me wonders ? after 30 years offstage, is this new generation ready for the return of the Rustman?

Pro-Shop Diaries Part 4: "Walking Skeleton Needs Help ASAP!"

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