12 Week Champions!

I want to take the time to give a belated congratulations to my Gold's Gym 12 Week Challenge winners Michael Stewart, Jeff Kroll, and Steve Zivich! That's right; this year not one or two but three of my clients won the competition in their age class. Looks like we're on to something here with beans, greens, and weight training! Thank you guys for all your hard work and dedication, and congratulations on all the improvements you've made in such a short time.

While I'm giving these gentlemen a shout out, I also want to thank Jeff for representing me with the awesome shirt below at a recent 10k here in Richmond.


And in case anyone is wondering just what sort of fuel Crossroads has to offer, you can check it out here.

Jeff also recently pointed out a great article on the risks of consuming dairy products to me. I have not gone into much detail on the topic here, but it is extensively covered in Dr. T. Collin Campbell's The China Study, and this article further supports many of his claims. If you want to give it a read, you can find it here:

		Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It At All Costs
	After all, everyone knows that you need milk to be healthy. In fact, dairy is nature's perfect food -- but only if you're a calf.

Thanks Jeff!

RVA Magazine!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to do a quick post to share that our pictures were just put up on RVA Magazine's website! Check out the article here:

http://rvamag.com/articles/full/8098/in-honor-of-frazetta

Thanks again to Kimberly Frost for taking them and sharing them!

Barbarian Pictures!

They're here at last! Behold our glory below. I want to give a special thanks to Kimberly Frost for taking the time to set up an awesome set and taking such great shots! If you want to see more of her work check out her site kimberlyfrost.com. I highly recommend her for any photography needs you have, physique or otherwise. Thanks Kim!






There were additional photos taken of a battle scene with our friend and my fellow trainer Paul Getty, but those aren't due for around another week, so be on the look out for even more herculean muscle shots (and some funny ones too)!

Marcella Shoot Prep, Phase 3 - Derek

The final pictures are coming in today, so without further delay I want to go into Marcella's final phase of photo shoot preparation!

To recap a little: after Marcella's Phase 1 routine she was losing body fat quickly, but also a lot of muscle. We quickly changed things up and her Phase 2 routine restored a lot of her muscle size, and she kept losing body fat so she was right on track for the shoot.

Her third phase had all the same focuses as mine (muscle definition, fat loss, etc) so I won't go into too much of the strategy detail on that. You can check out her routine here.

A major difference from her 3rd routine and my own is the upper body pace. While I was focusing on very high pace, high 'burn' workouts, Marcella kept to a more standard upper body breakdown with more rest and heavier weight to continue maintaining as much muscle as possible there.

Nutritionally we followed a carbohydrate-depleting and carbohydrate-loading cycle timed right before the shoot. What that means in plain English is that we went ultra low carb for the last 5 or so days before the shoot to really deplete our muscles, then a day and a half before the shoot we began 'carbing up' by eating large servings of things like sweet potatoes, oat bran, quinoa, and even a piece of pie! Hey, we earned it :). As the theory goes, in our depleted state our bodies were more efficient at absorbing carbohydrates, so this helped our muscles look more full and firm. To avoid the dreaded 'puffy' look that everyone should be familiar with after a night of sinful eating, we simultaneously dehydrated ourselves (minimal water and zero sodium intake) for about 18 hours before the shoot. This allowed us to have big, full looking muscles while keeping all the definition we had slaved so hard for. This carb cycling process is commonly used by bodybuilders to peak on show day, and I strongly advise caution with anyone wanting to try it. I will even go so far as to suggest avoiding the dehydration step entirely as dehydration is a very dangerous condition to play with.

So, there you have it. All our secrets of hard work and often painful dieting to get into the shape we were in. I will post the end results later today so stay tuned and keep training!

Photo Shoot Prep, Derek Phase 3 - Derek

ANNOUNCEMENT: The final pictures will be released and posted shortly thereafter this Tuesday 5/18 so stay tuned! In the meantime I will describe Marcella and my 3rd phase of prep for that big day, starting with mine.
After my Phase 1 and Phase 2 routines, I was feeling right on track to where I wanted to be. I had gained an appreciable amount of weight and worked hard to build a good aesthetic balance. All that was left to do was maximize my muscle definition and get 'shredded'. Check out my routine here.

To accomplish this I used the following techniques:

• Added Cardio almost every morning (eek!), especially the high intensity variety, which I did on an empty stomach to ensure I was burning as much bodyfat as possible.

• Performed an ab or calf only workout every morning after cardio. Calves are by far my weakest muscle group and I wanted to do everything I could to improve them. Abs were a focus for this phase to etch out the best 6-pack possible come shoot day.

• For my weightlifting, my focus was burning maximum calories and achieving the most definition. To do this I decreased my rest between sets and started performing supersets and triple sets. I also added more isolation exercises and unilateral (one side at a time) exercises to really hit every muscle fiber and make everything show. I even threw in a couple Tabata Sets (queue scary music) per week to really burn out the target muscle(s).

All these techniques will burn fat and improve definition, but it is also very easy to lose muscle during a cut down phase. I prevented this somewhat with Nutrition: To aid in fat loss we reduced overall calories, but to maintain as much muscle as possible we actually increased our protein intake so that if the bodies were going to use any protein for energy, it would be from food and not muscle. This is a technique used by bodybuilders as they diet for contests, but I don't recommend it because it is very stressful on the body, particularly the kidneys. Keep in mind we only used this tactic for 3 or 4 weeks.


To get this extra protein we actually selected some processed foods (again not recommended as a staple) that were high in protein and low in carbs and fat. These were Gardein meatless products and Purefit protein bars (my new favorite protein bar).

We also greatly decreased our fat intake and our simple sugar intake. This meant less fruit. I want to stress that fruit is extremely healthy and packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals; but in our effort to completely deplete our bodies and force the use of bodyfat we eliminated all fruit but the low sugar options strawberries and grapefruits. These choices had the added perk of tons of vitamin C to keep the immune system running during all our hard work.

If this sounds like a pain, it was. But it was also well worth the struggle and if any readers are interested in looking your absolute best for an event important to you, you might give these tricks a shot. Until next time, eat your greens and beans!

Omelets! - Marcella

Authentically "eggy" and rich, accomplished with tofu, chickpea flour, and black salt. The last two ingredients are really what give it the egg-like taste and texture. It's genius - this recipe, very slightly modified, is one of many awesome recipes in the cookbook Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For-From Asparagus Omelets to Pumpkin Pancakes. This is pretty labor-intensive - best for a Sunday brunch. Makes 4 medium sized omelets.

• a clove or 2 of garlic
• 1 pound soft or silken tofu (recommend Nasoya brand)
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp fine black salt (note on that later)
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

**Chickpea flour (great protein source) and black salt can be found at your local Indian market. You can substitute regular salt, but the black salt has a really, really authentic flavor.

In a food processor, combine first 6 ingredients and puree til smooth. Add the rest and puree again til smooth.

Use as big a skillet as you can find - it makes turning the omelets easier. I also highly recommend getting a really wide spatula if you want to get serious about these things. Spray the skillet with a light layer of cooking spray and heat to medium high.

This is the tricky part: add 1/2 cup of "batter" to the center of the skillet and spread out to about 6 inches. It should spread out a little on its own - if it just sits there in a big mound you probably need to add water. I ended up having to add 1/2 cup of water to my batch, but it's really dependent on the brand of tofu. Testing out a spoonful of batter first may be wise.

Let it cook 3 to 5 minutes - or until the top starts to look kind of dry and matte - then flip and cook another couple of minutes. If when you attempt to flip it feels too flimsy just let it cook longer.

Once on the plate, fill with your favorite ingredients and fold.

Again, this recipe is a lot of work but it,s worth it. Try it at least once.