Waterworld

            Is there such a thing as drinking too much water? I average about two gallons on days I don't train and closer to three on training days. I have to urinate at least twice an hour, sometimes more than that, and wake up at least three times at night to go to the bathroom. I have always heard how you need lots of water and how good it is for you, so I force myself to drink water literally all the time. I keep a half-gallon jug with me at all times and rarely go more than five minutes without a few chugs from it. But now I'm starting to wonder if all this is really necessary, or if maybe I'm overdoing it.  Do you drink as much water as I do?

            Do I drink as much water as you do? Not even close, buddy! In the off-season, when I'm not doing as much cardio, I drink a gallon a day. When I'm preparing for a show, it's up to a gallon and a half because I'm doing more cardio and sweating out so much more water. But three gallons a day- yikes! Yes, you are definitely overdoing it. The only time I come close to that amount is in the last week before a show when I'm carb-depleting. I'll drink about two to two and a half gallons in those few days, and the reasoning behind it is that water acts as a natural diuretic. When you drink a lot more water than your body requires, it just flushes it out. In fact, you urinate out a little more than you drink, creating a perpetual feedback loop of thirst.

             If you ever want to prove this for yourself, get some kind of container and collect all your urine in a day, then compare it to how much you drank.  Obviously, you would want to be careful about this and as sanitary as possible, and you would only really want to do this if you can't take my word for what I'm saying. Some people are Doubting Thomases and it may take collecting a jug of their own urine to believe. But what I'm trying to say is that by overdosing on water, you're probably doing more harm than good. When they say anything can be harmful in excess, that includes water. 

            I read something recently that said road races are limiting the number of water stops because runners were actually suffering from some sort of toxic reaction and dropping out of the races with cramps. Crazy, isn't it? So, if runners can have bad reactions to drinking too much water, it can't be that great for bodybuilders, either. One other thing is that your sleep is being disrupted and the quality compromised because you're getting up to pee so much at night. I would start cutting back your water intake immediately. Unless you're a 300-pound linebacker enduring football practices in Florida in August, I seriously doubt you need more than a gallon to a gallon and a half of water each day.

            Plans to Downsize the Marvelous Corporation

            Here's a question I bet you don't get too often. Do you intend to stay the size you are now after you retire from competition? I saw Dorian Yates and Kevin Levrone at the last Olympia expo, and both were way down from their former size and bodyweights. They both looked happy and healthy to me, but guys were talking crap about how "tiny" they were. I see other former competitors who stay huge and wonder why they bother; maybe it's an ego thing. I just wanted to know if you had given any thought to what you may do once you don't need to be 260 pounds anymore.

            Most definitely, I have given this some thought, and no, I do not plan on staying this size once I'm done competing. When I leave the stage for good, I will go down to a comfortable weight. I can't say what that weight will be- maybe around 220 or 230. I will still want to carry some nice size, and honestly, I don't think I could ever be a lot smaller than that anyway, as long as I keep training. This muscle was built over 20 years of heavy lifting and it's not about to evaporate into thin air if I stopped lifting. And besides, I won't ever stop training.  It's something I've been doing since I was a kid. I love it and I will always enjoy hitting the weights and getting a pump. 

            I doubt I will train as heavy as I do now and the workouts may not be as long or intense as the way I train for the Arnold Classic or the Olympia, but I will still work hard and handle some decent weights. I couldn't do it any other way because it wouldn't feel right. As for my ego, I would much rather be happy and healthy than be concerned about whether people snicker about me not being as big as I used to be. I do what I have to do at this point in my life to keep my physique up to the standards of modern bodybuilding, but only because it's my job. The day I'm no longer competing or guest posing is the day I tone things down to a more reasonable level and put my focus on things other than trying to look superhuman. 

            As for the guys who stopped competing years ago and stay huge, that makes no sense to me. Why would you put your body through all that when you no longer need to? I'm not spelling it out, but you all know what I'm talking about. I think it's sad that someone has to stay big just because his or her whole sense of self-esteem and self-worth depends on it. I know who I am, and God and my family love me whether I'm 260 pounds or 150. I'll always be me inside. Dorian is still Dorian and no matter how big or small he is today, you can't take away the fact that he won six consecutive Olympia titles and dominated the sport for most of the 1990s the way Ronnie has ever since.  Kevin had 20 pro wins and I don't think he has anything he needs to prove to anybody anymore. Both of their accomplishments speak for themselves. And when I retire from competition, my record will also stand for itself. That's how I feel about it.

            Paved with Good Intentions?

            I'm a senior in high school and first of all, I want to say how cool it is that you're studying to be a youth counselor. I see kids all around me who need direction or else a lot of them are going to make major mistakes with their lives. I am actually writing for a bit of advice. My dad's best friend Sam has been a serious weight trainer since I think the ‘60s. I started lifting last year and I get most of my info from MD and a few different bodybuilding websites. My dad's friend was over last week for dinner and he basically told me I'm doing everything wrong for a beginner by training like a bodybuilder. Sam wrote out a little routine for me, and this is it: bench press, squat, deadlift and power snatch, for three sets or five reps each, three times a week. That's it! He says after a year or so on this I can start adding in chins, dips, overhead presses and eventually "bodybuilding" exercises like curls and lateral raises. His intentions are good, I'm sure, but I think he's just clueless about bodybuilding. (I saw an old picture of him and he looked like a strong guy, but nothing like a bodybuilder). Sam insists training on his program will have me looking like a bodybuilder faster than training like "those guys." He was looking at two copies of MD I had on the coffee table, one with you on the cover and another with Victor Martinez. What's your take on his recommendation to follow such a short, basic routine?

            The way he wants you to train will make you strong, no doubt. But it's more of a powerlifting routine. You will get a little bigger on it, but not a whole lot. To make muscles grow, you have to hit them with some reps, some volume and from different angles. That's how you break down the fibers so they can rebuild to a bigger cross-sectional area. Bodybuilders may not be as strong as powerlifters, but that's because we don't train for pure strength and because we use such a wide variety of exercises. If anyone focused on just a handful of exercises, they'd get very strong on them over time. But if you ever take a powerlifter and have him go through a workout with a strong bodybuilder, the bodybuilder will bury him on a lot of the exercises, simply because the powerlifter isn't accustomed to doing things like curls, chins, rows and triceps extensions. 

            This Sam guy is very old-school and he doesn't really seem to think much of bodybuilders. His attitude is one I have run across many times. Some people think you should be as strong as you look and if a guy has huge muscles, he should be the strongest guy around for miles. This is like the old AAU Mr. America shows back in the 1930s through the 1960s, where the competitors had to score "athletic points" with Olympic lifting on the same day they were trying to win the physique competition. Ben Weider and the IFBB was the first organization to come along and say why can't we just make this a physique contest and judge the bodies? Props to him for that, or else maybe we would still have to do weightlifting before we posed- and Ronnie would still be the world champ! Anyway, it's up to you. If you want to develop a bodybuilder's physique, I suggest you train like a bodybuilder. Sam means well, but he doesn't understand what your goals are.

            How Degrading!

            This might sound trivial, but does it matter if you make your shakes right at the time you drink them, or is it okay to mix them up and keep them overnight in a refrigerator? I usually make all my shakes for the next day and then store them in rubber containers. Do you think any of the nutrients are lost or anything like that when you do this? I heard somewhere that the protein degrades, but I'm not sure how fast that happens.

            I'm not sure about the rate of degradation and how much protein might be lost in 24 hours, but why take the chance of losing any? I like to make my shakes right when I drink them. Obviously, if I'm home I use the blender in my kitchen. If I'm out, I bring the shaker bottle with the powder in it so I can just add water when I'm ready to make it and drink it. I'm sure any food, liquid or solid, loses some potency when refrigerated, so if you want to be sure you're getting everything you're supposed to, make your shakes fresh.

            Dumb and Dumber with Dumbbells

            There are two guys who train together at my gym every morning and they drive me and most of the other members insane. Neither one is huge, but they must think they weigh 300 pounds ripped like Ronnie, because they use way too much weight. Their form is the worst you've ever seen, they scream at the tops of their lungs with every set, and they drop the weights.  The manager doesn't do anything because I think he's scared of them- they have a lot of tattoos and swear a lot and look like they could be trouble. I am much larger than either one of them and I use far less weight with good form. I see them snickering at me from the corner of my eyes all the time, no doubt laughing at how the "big bodybuilder" is so weak. I'm really tempted to go over and confront these morons and tell them how offensive everyone finds them, and furthermore, how totally wrong their training style is. If you were me, would you do it, or continue to ignore Dumb and Dumber?

            I would ignore them. They are just jealous because you are bigger and better developed than they are. I bet they are envious and deep down they would love for you to teach them how to do things right, but they don't know how to approach you. Guys are all macho and often let their pride stop them from asking anyone else for help (that's why we never stop for directions when we're lost). 

I have been in situations like this, and rather than confront them directly, you are better off letting your physique do the talking. Some time when you're lean and tanned, wear a tank top and go in there and do chest and shoulders.  Once you're all swole up, hit some poses in the mirror when the two clowns are looking. I guarantee they won't be snickering when they see that. All guys respect size and muscularity. They can't help it. Based on situations where I have had to let my 22-1/2-inch guns talk for me, I can tell you that one of three things will happen. These guys will finally break down and start giving you your props, they will go find another gym, or they will at least avoid training when you are around. Either way, you can't lose.

Stiff-Legs for Size?

            Real quick question to settle an argument: Are stiff-leg deadlifts a size-builder for the hams, or are they just for stretching the muscle?

            I have done stiff-legs in the past with heavy weights and form that wasn't so good, but I never saw any mass gains come from that exercise. Now, I do them a lot lighter and treat it as a stretching movement for the hams. I do think bodybuilders should include them in their ham workouts for variety. I mean, what else is there for hamstrings? Everything else we do for them are just different versions of leg curls.  

Road to the Ironman and Arnold Classic

February, 2005

  Check Out the New and Improved Marvelous Melvin

            I am writing this exactly two weeks before the Ironman Pro. Steve Blechman tells me he's holding the issue this column is going into for the report and photos from the show, so at the same time you read this you can check out how I did. All I can say is that right now I feel I am in the best shape of my life. In the morning when I wake up, I'm about 240 pounds, and by the late afternoon or early evening, with a few meals in me, I'm 244. I am holding so little water lately that it looks like I took a diuretic. To give you an idea, I'm in the same shape now as I was eight days before the NOC last year when I won, and I still have 21 days left until the Arnold. My hamstrings have better separation than last year, my abs are deeper and I managed to add overall size while keeping the tiny waist I'm famous for. The Ironman is a title that has eluded me. In 2001, I was runner-up to Chris Cormier, then again, in 2003, to Jay Cutler. That year I beat Flex Wheeler, which was almost surreal, because he is a man I had looked up to for years. But still, there's nothing like first place.  I found that out at last at the NOC in 2004. Victory truly is sweet, and I want to taste it again.

            Carbs up, carbs down

            Chad [Nicholls] has been putting the diet on me and at times it ain't easy. He was playing around with my carbs to see how my body reacted. First, he had me drop down to 120 grams a day for five days, then back up to my usual 300 grams or so, for two days. Then things got really painful for the next four days as he had me down to a measly 75 grams a day.  Now I'm back up to 300 grams a day divided evenly over my meals, and I will stick with that until it's time to carb-deplete. This is the really fun part, where my body changes daily.  I have been doing more cardio this time, twice a day, every day. For last spring I wasn't doing any cardio on leg day. Now, I've been doing two daily sessions of either 45 or 50 minutes, depending on my energy levels. My hams are really coming in from using the Gauntlet, the mother of all cardio machines.

On Any Given Saturday

            People ask me who I consider my main competition and I say, "All of ‘em.'" I'm a fighter, and whoever is up there onstage with me, I'm going for knockout blows. On any given Saturday you can beat someone or get beaten. Gustavo wasn't considered a threat going into last year's Ironman, and we all saw what happened. I'm ready for anyone and I consider each one a threat.  You got Lee, Gustavo, Troy, Craig, King and new guys like Mark Dugdale. I gotta break some of these rookies in! I intentionally avoided putting any pictures up this time because I don't like to lose the element of surprise.  Lee and Gustavo have been posting their pictures up, and either one can get better or worse from then until the show. But nobody has seen me since the Night of Champions, and that's the way I wanted it. One other advantage I have over the other guys who are also going on to the Arnold two weeks later is that I get sharper doing back to back shows, while everyone else fades and gets worse.  I showed that last year in Hungary, though I got the runaround from the European judges. But that's ancient history now.

            Best Wishes to Dave Palumbo

            This is how focused I have been on getting ready for the Ironman and the Arnold. Somebody came up to me today and asked me what I thought about what happened to Dave Palumbo. I had no idea what he was talking about.  Until he told me that Dave is serving a short sentence for selling GH, I thought maybe Dave had been injured or worse. Honestly, I don't follow the gossip, especially when I'm in pre-contest mode. But I wish Dave the best and I know he'll be able to get his career and life back in order as soon as he's a free man again. Nobody's perfect. A lot of the guys who are acting all high and mighty and casting aspersions on Dave's character have skeletons in their own closets. We have all made mistakes. I say let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Dave has always been nice to me and everyone else that I know of, and he's one of the hardest-working bodybuilders out there. He should be a pro by now, and the fact that he refuses to give up and keeps coming back to the pro qualifiers year after year says a lot about the kind of man he is. So, I'll end this by saying that Dave is in my thoughts and prayers. Stay strong, brother, I know you'll get through this and go on to the next chapter in your life.

            Thanks to all of you who have been offering your positive encouragement through my web site, http://www.melvinanthony.com/.  I appreciate all the love I get from you all.

Got a question for Melvin? Contact him through the "Ask MD" section of http://www.musculardevelopment.com/