Making the Cut (46 page)

Rope Tricep Press

Set the pulley of the cable at the topmost setting, and attach a rope grip. Grasp the rope with your palms facing each other and your thumbs up. Stand with your feet a shoulder-width apart. Bend your elbows so that your forearms are slightly above parallel to the ground. Exhale, and pull the ends of the rope a few inches apart and out to the side as you press it down. Keep your elbows firmly pressed against your sides. Hold for a beat. Inhaling, slowly raise the rope back up to the starting position and repeat. This variation is more difficult because it changes the range of motion of this exercise. You have to not only press the weight down but also simultaneously pull it to the outside of your body.

Warrior Pose with Tricep Press

Muscles Targeted:
quads, triceps

Performance Description:
Stand with your feet a hip-width apart. Step forward with your right leg, and bend it at the knee until your knee is directly over the ankle with the thigh parallel to the ground. Your back leg should be completely straight, balancing on the ball of the foot with your heel lifted off the ground. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing behind you. Keeping your hands behind your glutes, press the weights back behind you as far as you can. Maintain straight arms throughout the entire movement, and keep tension on your triceps by not letting them come out in front of your glutes. Remain in the Lunge pose the entire time you are performing your Tricep Press repetitions. Complete an entire set, then repeat the next set with your opposite leg forward.

Wide-Grip Lat Pull-down

Muscles Targeted:
latissimus dorsi, teres major (muscles along the side of the upper back)

Starting Position:
Grab the bar at a lat pull station slightly wider than a shoulder-width apart with an overhand grip. Place your legs under the knee pad for support.

Performance Description:
With your eyes forward and back straight, exhale and slowly pull the bar down toward your collarbone. Hold for a beat. Slowly raise your hands above your head back to the starting position. Repeat.

Tips:
Always keep your shoulder blades adducted (pulled inward toward your spine) during the entire movement. Do not pull the bar behind your neck. This places too much stress on your rotator cuff and can result in injury. Do not lean back or arch your back when performing the move. Leaning or arching your back engages the lower back muscles instead of the upper back muscles.

[variations]

Medium-Underhand-Grip Pull-down

Grab the bar at a lat pull station with an underhand grip (palms facing you), hands a shoulder-width apart. Sit down, and place your legs under the knee pad for support. Sit up tall, with your eyes looking straight forward. Exhale, and slowly pull the bar down toward your collarbone. Hold for a beat, then slowly raise the bar back up to the starting position. The Medium-Underhand-Grip Pull-down focuses on your middle-upper-back and bicep muscles.

Standing Lat Pull-down

From a standing position, grab the bar so your hands are a little farther apart than your shoulders and your palms are facing down. Hold the bar at eye level. Keeping your elbows slightly bent and your wrists locked, exhale and pull the lat bar down toward your body in an arcing motion until it touches or comes close to your thighs. Hold for a beat. Inhale slowly as you let the bar back up to the starting position.

Terry Pull

Stand in between a cable cross station with two pulleys (one in each hand). Keep one foot forward and one foot behind you. Drop onto your back knee. Your arms should be outstretched with your palms facing up. Exhale and slowly pull your elbows down to your rib cage. Hold for a beat, inhale, and then slowly release your arms back to the starting position. Repeat.

Wood Chopper

Muscles Targeted:
abdominals, lower back, glutes, quads

Starting Position:
Adopt a wide stance, feet parallel to cable. Shift your body weight onto the foot closest to the cable. Hold one cable in both hands clasped together. Keep your arms straight.

Performance Description:
Exhale, and slowly rotate your upper body, pulling the cable diagonally downward toward the opposite knee. Simultaneously bend forward at the hips, and shift your body weight onto the foot farthest from the cable, lowering into a Squat. End with arms straight, legs bent in a Squat position, feet flat on the floor, and back straight. Hold for a beat, then inhale, slowly returning to the starting position.

Tips:
Keep your wrists firm and unbent, and focus on keeping your arms straight and abs tight.

4                   AT YOUR PEAK

N
ow that you’ve finished my program and are looking and feeling better than ever, it’s time to let you in on a little secret: nobody stays ripped year round, not even me. You will only ever see actors, models, or me on our very best days. How do we go from looking good to looking drop-dead smokin’ hot when going before the cameras? For the most part it’s hard work and discipline, just like what you’ve just been through. But I’m not going to lie; there
are
some tricks and shortcuts we use to cut excess weight right before a main event, a practice we refer to as
peaking.

The word
peaking
is usually used to refer to athletes who need to be at their absolute best for a single event, but for the purposes of this book we will refer to it as
looking
your absolute best. From time to time we all have a moment when we want to look
amazing.
Come on, you know what I’m talking about: your ten-year high school reunion, your wedding day, seeing your ex at the parent-teacher conference. Whatever that special event might be, this final section of
Making the Cut
is your bonus round, my parting gift to you. Here you’ll learn all the secrets of how your favorite celebrities are
really
getting ready for their close-ups, and what you should and shouldn’t be doing to look your best. We’ll cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of weight-loss pills, supplements, practices, and procedures, so you have all the information you need to make the right choices for your body and your health.
A reminder: always talk to your doctor before taking a new supplement or making any drastic changes in your diet.

SUPPLEMENT SECRETS

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that you can name any muscle-building, fat-burning, or water-shedding drug—amphetamines, diuretics, steroids, growth hormones—and somebody you’ve seen in a magazine, movie, or TV commercial has taken it recently. Despite the fact that these methods are
temporarily
effective in creating the illusion of fitness, they are not healthy or safe to take on a long-term basis.

There are safe and healthy ways to supplement your diet, however. This chapter will discuss the benefits of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fiber supplements that can aid you with weight loss and fitness.

Multivitamins

Any well-rounded fitness and dietary regimen eliminates the need for massive dietary supplementation. Working out, however, can cause your body to lose some essential vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes, and if you are eating a restricted-calorie or less-than-varied diet, your body is probably not getting all the micronutrients it needs to stay balanced and fit. Therefore you should take one multiple vitamin–mineral combination a day, to maintain good health and prevent illness.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A MULTIVITAMIN

         
Percent DV.
Read the Daily Value (DV) percentages for each ingredient listed. Make sure it does not exceed more than 150 percent of the DV.

         
Label.
Look on the back of the label for the USP code. USP stands for United States Pharmacopoeia. This label means that the makers of the supplement have had it tested by an independent agency to ensure the potency and accuracy of the ingredients.

         
Expiration date.
Look at the back of the label or on the bottom of the bottle for an expiration date. Do not use it if that date is past, as the appropriate vitamin and mineral content may no longer be available to be absorbed by your body.

         
Calcium content.
Calcium is a large molecule, which means that the size of the supplement will be larger if a lot of calcium is present. It is actually better to have a lower calcium amount (100–200 mg) in a complete vitamin and mineral supplement because it will not interfere with the rest of the ingredients in the pill. If you need to take a calcium supplement (the recommended daily amount is 1,000 mg), buy a separate calcium pill that has both Vitamin D and Vitamin K added. Look for a pill that contains about 500 mg per dose, which is about all your body can absorb at one time. For maximum absorption, take this supplement at a different time than your complete multivitamin, and do not take it with a meal rich in dairy, as this might give your body more calcium than it can absorb; unabsorbed calcium can interfere with the absorption of other nutrients.

         
Iron content.
If you are a woman of childbearing age, or if you do not eat red meat or leafy greens, look for a multivitamin that contains iron (10–18 mg). Otherwise you do not need a multivitamin with iron.

EXPENSIVE VS. INEXPENSIVE

Some vitamins and supplements are very cheap, mass-produced, and sold in supermarket or drugstore chains. These supplements are made using the cheapest ingredients possible, as well as the cheapest excipients. (Excipients are what bind the ingredients together.) With these very cheap supplements, 90 percent of the vitamins can end up not being absorbed and so wasted. On the other end of the spectrum, some companies manufacture highly sophisticated supplements, often referred to as nutraceuticals. These companies tend to use all-natural, potent ingredients and excipients that ensure the best possible delivery of nutrients to the body.

Now I’m not saying you want to go all out, but at the end of the day there’s no point in buying a cheap product that doesn’t work. If you decide you are going to supplement your diet with a multivitamin, splurge a bit and make sure your product adheres to the prerequisites listed above. Once you get your supplement home, make sure to store it in a dark, dry place at room temperature. Keeping supplements in the bathroom medicine cabinet is not a good idea, as the moisture from your shower will decrease their potency and shelf life.

Fiber

When it comes to weight loss, fiber supplements are useful, as they control hunger and help slow the absorption of food into your system, to better manage blood sugar. Fiber also has many health benefits: it can improve digestive function and help lower the risk of heart disease and cancer. Nearly every poorly functioning digestive tract will benefit from an increase in fiber. Once fiber enters your digestive tract, it interacts with the other foods and substances you consume. It slows down the rate at which you oxidize your food into blood sugar. Additionally, it ushers out of your body toxins you ingest that might otherwise be absorbed. It eliminates cholesterol, which could potentially block arteries. In addition, the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) that live in your digestive system and boost your immunity feast on fiber and thereby multiply to your benefit.

If you are eating healthy and getting plenty of veggies and whole grains, then your need for fiber is not that great. But if you find you are hungry while restricting calories, adding fiber is a great way to manage those cravings and help you feel fuller longer.

How much fiber should you be taking? Experts recommend 25–35 grams of fiber a day—most Americans consume only 10–12. Getting your daily 25–35 is one of the best ways to promote health and regularity and even maintain your ideal weight.

When you are purchasing a fiber supplement, choose one that is naturally balanced, which means that it has the same ratio of soluble to insoluble fiber as is found in nature. Flax-based fiber is an especially good choice. But again, the best source of fiber is food. Choose whole-grain breads, high-fiber cereals such as bran flakes and All-Bran, dried fruits like dates and prunes, and plenty of dark leafy greens, broccoli, beans, and lentils.

Fiber supplements should always be taken once a day with an eight-ounce glass of water 20 minutes before either breakfast or dinner. If you get hungry during the day, take it at breakfast; if you find you are starving at night, take it before dinner. Also, make sure to drink at least eight full glasses of water throughout the day, or constipation may occur.

A caveat: if you are currently being treated with certain antidepressants, diabetes medications, or cholesterol-lowering drugs, you should not use fiber supplements without first talking to your doctor. Fiber supplements may reduce or delay the absorption of certain medications, making them less effective. You should take medications at least one hour before or between two and four hours after taking fiber.

Amino Acids: Carnitine, 5-HTP, and Phenylalanine

Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are utilized by every cell in the body for a variety of crucial functions. They repair and support muscles, organs, nails, hair, skin, ligaments, and glands. Normally, we obtain them from food, particularly foods high in protein; the body breaks these proteins down into their constituent parts, and then our cells use them to build the specific types of protein each of them needs.

There are two types of amino acids: essential and nonessential. Essential ones are those that the body cannot manufacture on its own and must obtain from food sources (or supplements); nonessential ones, on the other hand, can be produced by our bodies but can also be consumed. I know what you’re thinking:
blah blah blah…will they make me skinny or not
? I am sure you guys have heard at some point about the wonders of 5-HTP or L-carnitine. Actually yes, aminos have many weight-loss benefits, including tyrosine for appetite suppression, glutamine for muscle development and curbing those carb cravings, carnitine for fat burning and metabolism enhancement, and arginine to release HGH (human growth hormone), the critical hormone we discussed earlier (see Chapter 3) that regulates fat metabolism and stimulates lean muscle growth. The list goes on. I could explain to you which amino does what, and how it does it, but I fear putting you straight to sleep. So I can avoid boring you to tears, just take my word for it—I know what I am talking about—trust it.