A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER Changing gears in bodybuilding Myron Mielke | Publisher and Editor In addition to the sport of bodybuilding, I’ve grown to magazine publisher at night, guys.) It was very stressful love mountain bike riding. It’s a great activity that can for me and it was difficult to stay on a restricted diet of really give you a challenging cardio workout. Some hills reduced carbs. Comfort food isn’t called comfort food for Iseem almost impossible to climb, but by clicking your nothing! Instead of becoming a snacking couch potato, shifters a few times the pedalling becomes much easier. however, I decided to go for strength and power in my On a very steep hill you might need to kick it into training thereby creating the necessity of increased calo- “granny gear” in order for you to make it to the top. ries—healthy calories mind you. I’m not gorging myself Bodybuilding can be a sport where you change gears on junk, but if I want a burger or ice cream once or twice too. You see, traditionally bodybuilding has two phas- a week, I’ll eat them. es—gears if you will—gaining size and getting ripped. My bench press is up. In fact, it’s the highest it’s been After a mass cycle you change gears to a fat-reducing in 15 years. I’ve cut my training to three to four days per period so you can get ready for a competition or to just week for added recovery. (The joints need it at my age!) look better for the summer months. I had forgotten how much fun a mass cycle is. I’ve been An added benefit of the bodybuilding lifestyle is to be caught up with low bodyfat and ripped abs for years. I able to change gears when factors in your life might not need to point out that I can still see my abs and I’m at warrant the type of training and effort you want to put about 10 percent bodyfat so I’m not a porker by any forth. Let me give you an example. means, but eating more and knowing it’s going to help This past summer I had been on a cutting/mainte- growth is fun! nance phase. I was at about eight percent bodyfat. I had Bodybuilding is a 24/7 lifestyle. Treat it as such. Go for been for nearly two years. I watched my carbs, ate lots of the cuts when you’re fired up and ready, but relax and go veggies and did lots of cardio along with hitting the for power when you need to. Mix up the training and weights four to five days per week. But then some enjoy life no matter what it might bring you. changes happened at work. (Hey, I’m still only a muscle Until next time, train hard! I’M A BODYBUILDER 2 www.imabodybuilder.com t-shirts are here… see them on our website… and then place your order. (oh yeah… they’re really cool) I’M A BODYBUILDER 3 7 5 12 Contents Judgment Day at the Mr. Olympia. 5 Summary of the 39th annual Mr. Olympia from Las Vegas. Olympia Expo 2004. 7 Free samples and legends of the sport. My diet and supplement strategy. 8 Mr. California speaks. Acclimation Sets. 9 Stop wasting your time with light, pyramid-style warmups sets. Bodybuilding trivia contest. 10 Your chance to win a Vitamin World gift certificate. Establishing Set Points. 11 Reaching you goals one step at a time.. Low carbs or high carbs. 12 Wny not both?. Mixin’ it up. 14 14 Just for fun stuff, misc. and etc. Cucumbers to the rescue. 15 Three refreshing recipes to assist your muscle growth. On the cover: Ahmad Haidar at the Olympia Expo 2004 I’m a Bodybuilder is published quarterly by Visions and Images Design Studio, Lancaster, CA. All material is copyrighted by Visions and Images and may not reproduced without permission. For 8 advertising information and letters to the editor, please refer to www.imabodybuilder.com. I’M A BODYBUILDER 4 Judgment Day at the Mr . Olympia Wow! That’s all I could think when planned on attending the judging a little tired or maybe he wasn’t feel- I saw Ronnie walk out on stage. and finals, but I had waited too long ing well. Ev e r yone in the audience was eagerly to purchase tickets for the finals and As I stated earlier it was easy to tell Wawaiting to see what kind of shape only the $200 seats were available. who was in first. It was easy to see he’d be in at this year’s Olympia. That was a little steep for us so we who was in last place. I had Richard Coleman was the last competitor to went to the judging only and attend- Jones pegged for last. He was flat and be evaluated in the solo evaluation ed the Olympia Expo as well (see di d n ’ t look as full as the other com- round. Each athlete came out by Expo story on page ??). petitors. The judges saw Groulx as themselves and hit the compulsories The judging began at noon and last, however. Jones was next to last so the judges could see who was in each competitor came out and in their eyes. shape and it’d make their jobs easier showed the world what kind of shape As the top four were rep e a t e d l y for callouts during the two rounds of he was in. Dexter Jackson was razor- c om p ar ed, I called Coleman first, pr ejudging. Coleman was definitely sharp and would place well. Cutler Dexter second, Badell third and dialed in. It was lights out as soon as was big but just a tad smooth. Cutler fourth. Jay was big but he was- he hit his first pose. No one was going Gustavo Badell equalled, if not n’ t as sharp as the other guys. It turns to beat him reg a r dless of the newly i m p roved, his conditioning he out that Jay got second again with founded Challenge Round. It was ac q u i r ed at the Ironman in Februa r y. Badell third and Dexter slipped to now a battle for places two throu g h Schlierkamp was big as usual, but he fo u r th in the Challenge Round at si x . was a little smooth too in my opin- ni g h t . The 39th annual Mr. Olympia was ion. Markus Ruhl was huge. I was sit- Coleman captured his seventh title held in Las Vegas on Saturd a y, ting way back in the balcony and I and you can bet next year I’ll get tick- October 30, 2004. A friend of mine, could see his huge peaked biceps ets early enough to see the finals Mike Harris, and I decided to make cl e a r l y . The guy’s a monster. Dennis w h e re I’ll witness Ronnie getting the trip to the Olympia. We had James was in good shape, but seemed Sandow trophy number eight! I’M A BODYBUILDER 5 MYRON MIELKE Dexter jackson, Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler Darrem Charles, Jay Cutler and Troy Alves Following are the final placings of the 2004 Mr. Olympia competition. 1. Ronnie Coleman- 24 pts. Ruhl, Mustafa, James, Martinez, and Coleman 2. Jay Cutler- 21 pts. 3. Gustavo Badell- 13 pts. 4. Dexter Jackson- 12 pts. 5. Markus Ruhl- 5 pts. 6. Gunter Schlierkamp- 1 pt. 7. Chris Cormier 8. Dennis James 9. Victor Martinez 10. Darrem Charles Jackson, Charles, Cutler, Alves and Jones 11. Pavol Jablonicky 12. Kris Dim 13. Ahmad Haidar 14. Johnnie Jackson 15. Troy Alves 16. Craig Richardson 17. Mustafa Mohammed 18. Richard Jones 19. Claude Groulx Ruhl, Mustafa, James, Martinez, and Coleman The semi-relaxed round of the 2004 Mr. Olympia. I’M A BODYBUILDER 6 O LYMPIA EXPO 2 0 0 4 The Olympia Expo 2004 was an ex t r a o rd i n a r y event. I can some it up in two words. Free samples. Oh yeah! TI slurped down at least 100 grams of pr otein in various shake concoctions and mixtures. Most were made with water so they were a little, well, wa t e r y. I prefer my shakes with non- fat milk, but they were free so I co u l d n ’ t complain too much. Many supplement companies were giving away trial packets of their pr oducts. I came out of the conven- tion center lugging about 30 pounds of stuff crammed into my free duffl e bag. I had SuperPump 250 fro m Gaspari Nutrition, and Animal Nitro fr om Univeral, which I got at “The Larry Scott, Mr Olympia 1965 and 1966 with here’s truly. Cage.” I had whey protein packets La r ry Scott and Dorian Yates was physique is more of an athletic type and MRPs from many diffe r ent com- tr uly an honor. I’ve gotten lots of of physique, similar to mine. He gave panies. I’ve been using energy sup- inspiration from those two guys. me great inspiration when I began plements incuding Redline from VPX Another high point was getting to competing in the 1980s. ev e r y workout for two weeks. I’ve meet John Hnatyschak at “the Cage.” I can’t wait to go to next year’s had some kick-butt training sessions John is a full-time police officer in Expo and I’m looking forwa r d to the fr om the stuff too.