Power Nutrition Q and A
By Anthony Ricciuto

Body Shoppe Nutrition…Your One Stop Shop!

Q: Hey Anthony what’s up man? I just wanted to let you know that I love your column every month. I have started to incorporate many of the different supplements that you recommend into my nutrition plan. I will say that with all the different ones that you have recommended they all did what you said they would. It is so nice not having to waste money on something only to find out that it sucked in regards to the results that it provided. With sticking with your recommendations I had all great results and some have become staples in my plan. Anyway since I am using a lot more supplements I don’t want to buy them from the local health food store since they really seem to jack up the price. I wanted to know of an online distributor that carries all the supplements that you recommend and at the best price possible. Plus to tell you the truth I would rather my money goes to a company that supports powerlifters and our sport. Can you please recommend someone to me since I know that you are the man to go to for this kind of info?

Sincerely,
Saul Walberg

A: Hey Saul its good to hear from you. I am happy to hear that you have taken some of my recommendations and put it to good use. Yes you will see that I only recommend what works. If it doesn’t provide results that you can see and feel then you can bet your last pair of knee wraps it won’t have my name or Nutrition XP3 Seal of Approval on it. This way you can be confident that whatever I am recommending is going to provide you with results. In fact the supplements that I recommend in my column are the same ones that I use with my world class athletes and even take myself. So you can be sure to get info you can trust in my column because my reputation is too precious to tarnish with recommending garbage!

     Now in regards to your question about an online supplement distributor there is one that you will be very interested in. My company X-treme Power has joined forces with a supplement distributor that will take care of all your Powerlifting supplement needs. This company is none other than Body Shoppe Nutrition. You can reach them on the web at www.bodyshoppenutrition.com. The Owners are Mike and Brian Fox.

     Now you might be wondering why my company and Body Shoppe Nutrition have teamed up. Well the first thing is the fact that I needed to send my ever-growing clientele list to a company that can take care of their needs. Body Shoppe Nutrition carries over 150 different brands of natural supplements. Yea you heard that right over 150, so as you can see if it is made then you can be happy to know that most likely they have it or will get it for you! Next I wanted to make sure that the company that I deal with is on the ball. There is nothing worse then to recommend a company only to find that their service is slow or their customer service sucks to put it bluntly. I want to know that my athletes as well as my readers are going to get he best service available. Next their prices can’t be beat. They have some of the best prices you will find on the net and on top of that they are always running sales to make the deal even sweeter. They offer prices that are wholesaled. Why go to the health food store down the street and pay retail when all you need to do is give them a call and have it delivered right to your front door? Just for a few of the items that I personally use I have saved over $20 on each item when compared to getting them down at my local mall. Now $20 might not sound like a lot when you are buying one thing but if you are like me and buy 7-10 items when placing an order it can sure add up in a hurry. That is why I prefer to get the best price I can and this is where Body Shoppe Nutrition comes in hand. If you are a tight ass like I can be at times then you need to get the best price possible.  To even better that they give out discount code coupons that can also be used different times of the month. This means that you are going to get the best price on all the supplements that you love to use in your nutrition plan. Now last but not least is the fact that these guys are powerlifters too. Yes that is right. Personally I like to contribute back to those that are part of the Brotherhood of Iron. Yea you heard that right, there is nothing better than taking care of those that take care of you. Not only are they a part of the sport but they also sponsor and donate money to contests. They sponsor both Powerlifting and Strongman shows and even Highland Game events. These guys are Strength sport fanatics and that is why they cater to us and not the bodybuilding genre that most other supplement distributors work with almost exclusively only to leave us hoping they have what we want.

     So since Mike and Body Shoppe Nutrition seem to fit all my ideal criteria when it comes to dealing with my athletes and readers I thought it would be best to team up with people who truly care for our sport and invest their money back into it. Why would I want to spend my money where they could care less about powerlifting and the only thing they promote is bodybuilding and figure competitions? Hell no that is not where I am going to drop my money, thanks anyway. I always have felt better to spend my hard-earned cash where I was treated well and they supported my sport. Now to help out all my favorite PL USA readers I muscled Mike around until he decided to run a special for all us power mongers. So the next time that you are looking to get your monthly load of supplements send Mike an email and tell him I sent you. Now to get even a better deal give this code PLUSA 10 when placing your order so you can save another 10% off some already great prices. Now his prices are some of the best in the business and with another 10% off you are going to save a ton of money on all the supplements that you use in your nutrition plan. Now to help out even more Mike went above and beyond with this one. For the first 20 PL USA readers that order a BSN product they will receive a free BSN T-shirt and a goody bag of BSN products absolutely free. After the first 20 orders you will still get the goody bag on any BSN order. So my client and good friend Bill Sindelar, Masters National Champion and Silver Medallist at this years Worlds better pay attention because he is a big BSN fan. Congrats again Bill…great job!  Stay tuned on my forum at www.nutritionxp3.com to find out new monthly specials that he runs as well. Now that X-treme Power and Body Shoppe Nutrition have teamed up you can bet that you the powerlifter are going to be able to get all the supplements that you need at rock bottom prices. Finally a supplement distributor by powerlifters for powerlifters! Give them a call, as you won’t be disappointed!

Laura Phelps…The Future of Women’s Powerlifting

Q: Anthony what’s up? Your column always provides some great info, but I have one problem with it! Where are all the women profiles? All you do is profiles on men. What’s up with that mister? I know you work with women lifters too so why aren’t we seeing that many women featured in your column. My favorite lifter is Laura Phelps and I would like to see more about her. I heard that she is working with you so why don’t you give some props to the ladies of our sport and let us know what she does with her nutrition and supplement plans. I am dying to know what she eats and what supplements she uses as well. Let’s hear it for the women for once otherwise I am going to have to get nasty the next time I run into you at a Powerlifitng contest.

Sincerely,
Latasha “Big Bad Mama” Johnson

A: Wow somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Did you kitty cat use your bowl of Cornflakes as a liter box again or is there another reason why you in such a stellar mood? Ok you are right in the fact that I don’t do enough profiles on women. Its true I should be offering more to our women lifters in regards to the role models that they want to see featured in my column. Ok so you got me there. I will start featuring more females in my column. Now even though I do work with some women I would have to say that 90% of the powerlifters that I do nutrition program design for are males. Sorry about that but it’s the truth. Maybe the women lifters of our sport aren’t as dedicated to the nutritional sciences as our male counterparts? Oh boy am I going to get a lot of nasty emails from that comment. That’s ok I am cool with that. Now you are right in the fact that all my athlete profiles have been done on men but that is going to change.

      Now since I don’t want you to beat me down at the next Arnold Classic I am going to do a nice profile on your favorite powerlifting superstar….Laura Phelps. Hey all you had to do was ask. You didn’t have to threaten to beat me down like that girlfriend. See we can work things out without the violence. To tell you the truth I was actually planning to do a profile on Laura very soon even before you decided to twist me into a  human pretzel. No for those of you who don’t know who Laura is then I will have to say, brush yourself off from the rock that you crawled out from under and welcome to the sport of powerlifting. Oops sorry I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic…well maybe I did. For those of you that are not familiar with Laura’s accomplishments then I will give you a brief synopsis of just a few of her credentials.

July 9, 2005  APF Summer Bash II (Chicago, IL) - 551 squat, 303 Bench, 451 deadlift, 1305 Total @ 165 lbs.

August 6, 2005   APF Grandhaven Meet (Grandhaven, MI) - 580 squat, 315 bench, 135 (token) deadlift @ 165 lbs.

October 29, 2006   WPO Semi-Finals (Chicago, IL) - 683 squat (WR), 352 bench, 468 deadlift, 1504 Total @ 165 lbs. 
                                                                                                                                          
January 20, 2006   APF Ohio State Meet (Fremont, OH) - 725 squat (WR), 135 (token) bench, 135 (token) DL  @173 lbs.

March 3, 2006   WPO Finals (Columbus, OH) - 705 squat (WR), 402 bench, 473 deadlift, 1581 Total (WR) @ 165 lbs.

July 29, 2006   APF Middletown Meet (Middletown, OH) - 725 squat, 415 bench, 510 deadlift, 1650 Total @ 164.6 lbs. (WR and 1st American Woman to Total 10x bodyweight)

September 16, 2006   APF Leave No Record Unbroken Meet (Fremont, OH) - 465 bench @ 178 lbs. (WR)

**All WR's are All-Time WR's

      Laura holds the world record in the 165-pound class with an amazing asskicker of a squat at 725. Yes can you imagine that! A middleweight woman lifter dunking over 700 in the squat. Hell I remember back in the late 80’s and early 90’s watching the Hawaii Record Breakers meets and seeing John Inzer and Ausby Alexander battling it out neck to neck. Hell at that time I believe they were both in the range of 710-750 in the squat and both were the top of their game. Hell now we have a woman that could have duked it out with the best of men. Wow how the sport has progressed in the last 15 years. Now that is not all that this super star has accomplished. She also holds the world record in the total and holds the bench press record as well with a mind boggling 465. I know men at her weight that would love to do that! All I can say is that she is a powerhouse that is only going to get better with me on her team. Laura is no doubt the future of the sport of powerlifting for women and she is going to reset the record books and take a lot of titles before she is through.

      Actually Laura is one of the most gifted strength athletes I ever had the pleasure to work with. She is by far not only one of the nicest to deal with but she is dedicated to her nutrition plan like a real trooper. For all the women that I have worked with she is no doubt the best! I will admit here that a lot of women that I work with complain like there is no tomorrow when I start cutting out their junk food and cut down on their portion sizes. Well the men aren’t much better as they don’t complain they just don’t listen! This is not the case with Laura and that is why she is setting the powerlifting world on fire right now. She is just as dedicated to her eating as she is with her training. This is exactly what I have been pushing in these pages all these years and when it is done you are going to get some fantastic results. I am going to let you in on all her secrets… well maybe not all of them but you are sure going to be glued to that issue for sure! You want to know what she eats then you can be sure that you are going to find out. You want to know what supplements she uses well it will all be there. So just hold on to your horses, take a deep breath, don’t hurt anybody and just wait because in the new year I am going to have you one super profile that you are going to love.

 Rating the Antioxidants

Q: I know that you have mentioned antioxidants in your column a few times before. I was wondering if you could give me some insight into what the best foods are in regards to the highest amount of antioxidant protection? How is a food rated in regards to this? I would like to know more about antioxidants since cancer runs in my family and I want to protect myself as much as possible. Please let me know what you would rank as the best vegetables and fruits would be. Thanks so much for your great column. Please keep up the good work since the powerlifting community needs someone like you in our corner.

Yours truly,
Vito Paolicci

A: Hey Vito, it’s nice to hear from you. Yes I have mentioned antioxidants in my column a few times but I have not yet done an in depth series on them. I am actually planing an article series on antioxidants and the powerlifter so stay tuned to find out more info. First off for some of our readers that aren’t in the know about antioxidants let’s take a look at what they are. Antioxidants are chemical compounds that can eliminate oxidative damage through different processes. This oxidative damage is caused by a slew of different free radicals that can wreak havoc on our long-term health.

     Now in regards to your question about how the antioxidant levels of each food are monitored scientists have designed a test to see how beneficial each food type is. Now this test is known as ORAC and stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. This test basically will help determine the score that each food that is analyzed has in regards to its antioxidant potential. This score will help you chose the best sources of fruits and vegetables so that you can start implementing them in your nutritional plan to get all the many benefits that they have. I know with powerlifters, their care for antioxidant information is probably very low even though it shouldn’t be. Heck I have a hard time just getting them to cut down on their junk food and start drinking protein shakes. So for many they don’t have an inkling of truly how important fighting free radical production is for their long-term health and disease prevention from life altering conditions like cancer. Since weight training can actually increase free radical production it is even more important for the powerlifter to make sure that he is protecting his health.

     Here is a chart system that I have designed to help you understand the ORAC rating for the top 10 best fruits and vegetables. I have laid out a chart with a portion size of about 7 ounces or the equivalent of just under 1-cup. So let’s take a look at some of the items that you should be eating in plentiful amounts to help keep you healthy.

Top 10 Vegetables for Antioxidant Protection

Top 10 Fruits for Antioxidant Protection

     So as you can see when you are trying to optimize your antioxidant protection from foods these are your best choices bar none. Now for the athletes that have worked with me one on one for nutritional program design they definitely understand why I am putting so many of the above foods into their diet plans. I am very big in a diet rich in antioxidant protection so that your health and performance can benefit from it. When I design a plan for an athlete many times they don’t know exactly why I am including certain foods or in specific amounts but once they start to understand the science behind nutrition it seems to all fall into place for them. One thing that all my clients will tell you is that I am very big on veggies. One fact is due to the high amount of antioxidant protection they offer in terms of health and longevity. I try to get all my lifters to take in at least 3-4 cups of veggies per day minimum. Now for those that don’t like them or haven’t eaten a piece of broccoli since they were forced to by their mothers when they were 12 years old then this will be tough to do. But believe me you will feel better, have more energy, and suffer from less health conditions by taking my advice and start incorporating plenty of green vegetables into your nutrition plan. Hey look at this way. If vegetables by the boatload are good enough for Garry Frank, Travis Mash, Phil Harrington, and my newest female superstar Laura Phelps then you can be sure they will be good enough for you. So stop whining like a little schoolgirl who just lost her little puppy… save the drama for your mama and eat the damn things!

     Now let’s take a look at some of the best antioxidant rich veggies and how to put them in your plan. Now kale tops the veggie list but to tell you the truth it is not the most popular vegetable in the world even though it probably should be. Spinach ranks in at number two with a bullet. Ok I know that you are probably thinking how could this nutrition guy be recommending spinach after this horrific Ecoli scare that just occurred a month back. Well once the alerts are over and it is safe to eat spinach again then I would recommend putting it back into your nutrition plan. Before the scare I used to eat spinach daily at least 2 cups worth. Hell I put it in my eggwhite omelet in the morning and then make another spinach salad later in the day. Broccoli is another big veggie in my plans as I have most of my athletes eating this almost daily for one of their many meals. Peppers and onions are a must in not only my omelets but also all of my salads. Oh yea I love onions but just stay away if I don’t have some gum on me. Now a lot of lifters probably don’t eat much eggplant since it would probably rank as exotic on most lifter’s food choices. I actually like eggplant a lot and have it at least twice a week. If you know how to prepare it properly it is oh so good!

     For the fruits, prunes take the lead and by a whopping margin if I do say so myself. They are close to double the ORAC rating of the second place rating. Now berries are where its at when looking to get antioxidant protection. I always use some type of berry in my oatmeal or cream of wheat in the morning. They can really help to spice up a bland bowl of oats quite nicely. Oranges are lower on the list but they can make a nice addition to your power breakfast to round out the score. Cherries come in last and also have a lot of other health benefits that most people are not aware of. One of them is anti-inflammatory properties that can make a huge difference for those that suffer from these conditions. They are not always in season but when summer time comes rolling around you can be sure to find them in my fridge.

     I know that a lot of lifters only think about that bigger total. Now being focused on your sport no matter what it is, is a great thing. Without it you won’t go very far. But on the other side of the coin, if you neglect the many variables that keep you healthy and injury free then you truly aren’t as focused as you may think you are. You will understand this first hand when a major injury hits you, or you suffer a health condition that you were not expecting to have. Type II Diabetes is one ailment that is a perfect example. This is because so many lifters just eat whatever they want year after year not thinking of how what they put in their mouth will affect their health in years to come and the many complications that it can also cause down the road. Now the reason why preventing the oxidative stress caused by free radicals is so important is the fact that they can help increase your chances for some nasty diseases. Most don’t know this but oxidative stress can be a major factor for such conditions as Heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and even the BIG C. For those that don’t know what the Big C is well its none other than Cancer! I know if any of you care for your long term health then you will understand why I try very hard to change the mindset of lifters all across the world to take better care of themselves. Since powerlifters have a horrible reputation in this regards this is why I am constantly driving home on numerous different health topics in the hopes that some of you will sit up and listen to me and then take action and start implementing different health practices in their life. This way you will enjoy the sport that you love a lot longer and at the same time enjoy your quality of life as well. So in the end I am not the bad guy you think I am because I try and force all those horrible vegetables down your throat. I am truly looking out for your best interest and I want you to take full advantage of the information that I present to you each and every month. This way you can see and feel how much a difference eating clean can have on your performance, physique and long term health.

IF you have any questions free feel to write me at:
Aricciuto@nutritionxp3.com

Or check out my website and forum at:

www.NutritionXp3.com

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