Craig, I heard that early on in your bodybuilding career, when money was tight, you did "gay for pay." Is this true? If yes, did you ever "take it?" And how much did you charge?
Hahaha! First, I have absolutely nothing against homosexuals, because homosexuals are people, too. It's a preference, which they have either chosen or are born with. I have nothing against them, but when you are talking about Craig Titus, you are talking about a 100 percent male heterosexual man!

I have never done anything gay for pay. It's just another rumor created by haters who had nothing else to say when my career was taking off. However, there are, in fact, many pro bodybuilders in this sport who do pose for pay, or do gay for pay. Generally, people know who they are, and most people also know that I'm not one of them.
Sorry to say I'm not into gay for pay, but I can tell you right now if I was, I'd be filthy stinking rich! I get offers all the time. And that's that.

CURE FOR LOPSIDEDNESS
Recently, there have been many articles concerning unilateral vs. bilateral movements. I would like to know how to do unilateral exercises, like concentration curls. My left arm is weaker than my right and most training routines have each set taken to failure.  If I can do 10 reps with my left arm, do I perform 10 reps with my right arm and stop (even though I can do more reps before failure), or do I continue to do reps until my right arm fails?
No, you shouldn't do more on the stronger arm. What you'll end up doing is increasing the arm's size and strength more and more, causing a greater imbalance. What you need to do is work the weaker body part, not only on the same day as the body part you're training, (e.g., biceps day), but on another entirely separate day, too. This way you'll get extra work.
It's called Priority Training. Let's say you do 12 repetitions with your left arm, the weak arm. Then, you do 12 repetitions with your right arm, but obviously, you can do much more. Don't do it. Stop at 12. From there, immediately go back to the left arm and do four, five or maybe even six more reps to failure and count that as the same set. Continuously do this throughout your workout on the biceps and you'll find that before long, the weaker of the two arms will catch up.
This isn't as uncommon a problem as you might think. As a bodybuilder, symmetry is very important, so we have to pay attention to these things. For example, I've been doing this throughout my career with my right pec, because it's smaller than the left one. It's not so much a strength difference, but a size difference. So, not only do I do extra sets for my right pec on pectoral days, I do extra work on my right pectoral on my shoulder days, too.
On a totally separate day, I do five more sets on my reverse pec deck flye machine, and it's been very effective over this last year. I almost have equal size in my pectorals now.
However, working chest involves a pushing movement, so you won't see as much of a strength difference. During a pulling movement, such as biceps curls, you will definitely notice the strength difference. The point is that you don't want to do more reps on the stronger arm, or you'll continually have that arm grow larger than the weaker one. Just make sure you do extra sets on the weaker of the two.
It's basically that simple.

MAN BLUBBER
I have been working out for two years now. About six months ago my body would not let me build any more muscle. I'm 21 years old, 6-1 and 220 pounds. I want to gain 20 more pounds, but how do I go about doing it?
Well, bro, apparently you haven't been reading my columns that much.  Now that you've sent me a question and I'm going to answer it, I sure hope you read my columns from here on out. You can open up any one of our Muscular Development magazines, cuz it's one of the best magazines on the stands, and find 100 different ways to gain 20 pounds of muscle. And you can bet your ass it's real advice and none of that crap you can smell in other magazines from a mile away.
The best advice I can give you is to be consistent in the gym with your training and eat your ass off. You have to consume sufficient amounts of protein and carbohydrates to grow. What I suggest is that you up your caloric intake and lift weights consistently, and the weight will come. It's common sense, it's a biological fact and it will happen! If you don't eat, you will not grow.  It's as simple as that.
Now, before you start whining about having trouble eating, let me remind you what it means to be a bodybuilder. This sport is one of the hardest in the world. That's a fact. To be a champion at this sport, you have to have discipline and this extends to everything you do outside the gym as well as inside. People find that they have problems putting on muscle and it's because they don't have any discipline. End of story!
When the 2-1/2-hour mark comes around, and your watch says 3:00 and you're scheduled to eat at 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 and 12:00, then at 3:00 you'd better be eating. At 6:00 you'd better be eating. At 9:00 you'd better be eating. At 12:00 you'd better be eating. And that's just the way it has to be. Get the picture? Most of the time, and I get this question nine out of 10 times, I ask these guys if they're eating every three hours. Are you eating every 2-1/2 hours? "No, I only eat about three times a day." And almost every single time, that's the problem prohibiting them from putting on more size. I'll bet if you eat every three hours, you'll grow like a weed.
Now, most people don't have the appetite to eat that often. I had that problem myself, but just as with training, there's a way to work into it. What I did was I lowered the caloric intake of each meal while increasing the amount of daily meals at the same time. Using this method, I consumed the same amount of calories, but by making the meals smaller, I was actually able to eat them all. So that's one suggestion. If the meals are too big, make them smaller and eat more of them. Plus, you won't be all bloated. Since your goal is to pack on muscle, I'll give you an example of one of my favorite bulking meals:
16-ounce Porterhouse steak, rare
Baked potato with honey mustard dressing
Steamed white rice with Mrs. Dash seasoning
And, I absolutely have to have a slice of apple pie with some ice cream.
Aside from the apple pie, that's a pretty clean meal. In the off-season, I used to eat a lot of fast food, as I was after pure caloric quantity. I've tried to trim that down a little bit because I've been competing so much this year. I find that if I eat a little bit cleaner, but still high in caloric intake, I pack on the weight without all the fat. As far as fast food is concerned, I think it all depends on the individual. If you have problems gaining weight, period, you should try eating fast food if that's what it's gonna take. Just keep a close eye on your waistline before you end up looking like a sumo wrestler.

FIRST THINGS FIRST
I've been out of prison for three weeks now and do not have any weights or supplements- I'm still looking for a job. I'm starting to see muscle loss and fat gains. What can I do?  I went from 282 to 200 pounds and put on a real good amount of muscle in prison.  I want to get huge, but any gains in the wrong direction are unacceptable.   
Seriously, the first thing you have to do before you can even think about putting on muscle is to get your life together. You've got to get a job and some financial income to pay for what it takes to put on muscle. Building solid beef ain't cheap. C'mon, bro! There are more important things than having big muscles. Start looking for a job first. Get yourself a place, a car and put food on the table. Get the necessities of life down. Then get your money for your supplements and gym membership and worry about training. Don't even look in the mirror until you get your A, B and C done before you go to D, E and F.  Honestly, good luck to you, and let me know how you're holding up.

CLOSER IN FOR A BIGGER BACK
My question is simple: How can I widen my lower lats? I do all the core back movements like deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, etc. But are there certain angles I should be doing on these movements to target specific areas of the lats? My upper lats seem to be growing fine, but my lower lats have yet to develop.  Thanks. Your no BS advice is the reason I read this magazine.
I've got one answer for you, brother: Close-grip pull-downs on the lat machine. By using the close-grip bar instead of the normal wide-grip bar, you'll stretch those lats all the way down to the insertion at the very, very bottom. Start using close-grip pull-downs to the front of the chest and that will lengthen the lats all the way down to the tie-in- guaranteed. But remember, if the lats are genetically tied in high, there's nothing you can do about it. If they're genetically tied in low, and you just have to build them, then that's definitely the exercise that will build them down at the lower tie-in. I recommend using the close-grip bar (also known as the V-handle bar) that's normally used for the seated row. That'll take them all the way down the insertion right to the waistline.
Since back is one of my favorite muscles to train, I like to do 15 to 20 sets for back. The first four sets are just warm-ups. The next 16 are very heavy.  I hit every angle and position possible because the back is such a large, complex body part. It has to look good from every angle, because a bodybuilder without a back is just faking it. Also, you have to keep in mind that developing that lower insertion is a product of muscle maturity, mass and genetics. It's gonna take time.
There are guys in the sport who have high lat tie-ins and there are guys in the sport who have low lat tie-ins. King Kamali, for example, has an awesome back! His back ties in all the way down around his waist. Again, it's a genetic thing. The thing to remember is Kamali busted his ass to look that way and even in his training video, one of the things you see him doing is close-grip pull-downs to the front. So get to it!

MANSTROGEN HELP
Right now I'm at about 13 percent body fat. I'm starting a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates. I developed a lot of fat storage in my glutes, which makes me look unsymmetrical.  I weigh 192 pounds at 5-11 and I'm 34 years old. It's difficult for me to gain muscle and lose fat. I've never used steroids, but I have this constant pain in my left nipple and some people told me that the fat storage and the difficulty in gaining muscle is due to a high conversion of testosterone to estrogen in my body. Could you give me advice on how to control the estrogen? I want to lose the fat in my glutes and gain muscle so I can have that V-taper.
Absolutely! This is a question I have no problem answering. The answer's simple. You go to your physician and have a blood test done. The physician will tell you how high your estrogen levels are and then you'll know if the gland beneath your nipple that is responsible for the pain is, in fact, from the estrogen being too high.  
Your physician will either prescribe Arimidex or Nolvadex. This is a very common thing, even with people who do not use steroids. Guys who go through puberty rather late experience this problem. All you have to do is get your blood work done and see how high your estrogen is.
I think Arimidex is the best; it's very effective. It will keep the estrogen levels lower, and by keeping the estrogen lower, you'll have a lesser amount of body fat. Also, having surgery to get the gyno removed is not a bad idea. It's a very simple procedure and doesn't cost very much money at all. You can probably get it done locally for about $2,000. Since you are past puberty, I don't know if insurance will cover it, but the first option rather than surgery would be to get some anti-estrogen from your physician and get the gland down to get rid of the pain.
Also, cardio and fat burners can help out. They will take away some of the body fat around the nipple. Throw some cardio in with the training and some of Cytodyne's time released fat burner, NRG. It is very effective. Any time you get rid of body fat your appearance will improve and you'll feel better, and that may lessen the estrogen in your body, too.

Craig Titus' Road to the Orlando Xtreme
     Late March, 2004

Rebuttal to Flex Wheeler- Titus Style
Flex said some nice things about me in his Ironman Review and I will agree that the chest surgery I had, in fact, worked very well. I want to point out that I jumped into the Ironman with the prior plan to do just the Arnold Classic. I worked with Chad Nicholls and we decided to do the Ironman and use it as a warm-up for the Arnold. We thought that I would be ready and possibly peak for this show. It turns out I still needed a couple more weeks of dieting to peak.  
The fact of the matter is, I did not look very good for the show as my wife got extremely sick Friday night and was rushed to the emergency room with food poisoning. I sat in the room waiting for her to get back from the hospital. I was very, very stressed out and it threw my whole contest prep off. Due to the stress levels, I held a film of water. I don't know if that's going to sound like I'm making excuses, but those are just the facts of the matter, and I apologize to my fans.  
Now, as for being outgunned by "genetically superior" athletes, let's point out something really fast here: Genetically superior athletes?! There was only one genetically superior athlete on that stage and that was Dexter Jackson, period! Lee Priest and the others, I have beaten ‘em all before.  Ahmad Haidar and Gustavo Badell have never beaten me until this show.  Never! They beat me because I beat myself. That's why I was beaten at the Ironman.
To be fair, Gustavo's conditioning was awesome. Much props to him.  But, let me point out that two weeks later at the Arnold Classic, I smashed him. Should Ahmad Haidar have beaten me at the Ironman? Absolutely not! The guy didn't even put oil on in prejudging! What the hell? But, that's just the way the cookie crumbled that day. I took the Ironman placing on the chin like a man but I promise it won't happen again. However, to say other men genetically outdid me on stage is absolutely ridiculous!
In the morning, some judges actually had me in second place while others had me in third. I spilled over and I was put into fifth at the night show as a spanking. I do appreciate the nice things Flex said about me, but to say that I was genetically outdone, maybe he meant at that moment and on that stage, but as for in general, absolutely no way, no how!

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