The Research Report

Out of the Dark Ages… A New Approach to Health

My teen hood summers were spent in perpetual wonder at the world around me. In 1972 I was sixteen year-old boy caught between dreams of manhood and a gnawing compulsion to meet and date the girls.

That Saturday, one sweltering August afternoon I decided to jump on my bike and pedal furiously to Virginia Minnesota to the local drug store some fifty miles away, so I could buy a muscle magazine? The money I had earned mowing lawns burning a hole in my pocket. Saturday you see, was muscle magazine day I couldn’t survive an entire week without MR. AMERICA our IRON MAN. I was caught up in a glorious four-color fantasy world.

With my precious muscle magazine money, I bought MR. AMERICA and scoured it from cover to cover. I learned of reps and protein powders. And I came to know Larry Scott, whose handsome face and from graced practically ever page. Larry epitomized all that was glamorous and exiting about bodybuilding. Here was masculinity define: blond hair, rock-hard biceps, chiseled abs and a California look that captured the public’s adulation as nothing else had. I was hooked.

If you have ever had the opportunity to see Larry Scott pose at close hand back in 1965 you are one lucky person, and what a physique he had! It is hard to see how one could pack on so much muscle and still be so shapely and well defined. People back then and still today just don’t know why anyone would want to be bigger, but he did prove that there apparently is no limit.

The thing that was so impressing back then was the fine skin tone and the “glow” of health and vitality that you did not see on anyone else. His skin had a sort of golden color. This is from the protein, cream and liver tablets Larry took, and especially the latter.

Larry is the hardest worker I have seen in all my years of association with him. He is a slow and hard gainer and so he has to work hard. He should be an inspiration to others who also find it hard to gain, illustrating that success will come from persistence, hard work, and good nutrition.

Scott a few weeks before the show was about 210 now, and he was taking, 3/4 cup of protein mixed with 1/2 pint of cream and 1/2 pint of milk. He did not take this with his meals, but shortly thereafter. He was getting a minimum of about 250 grams of protein a day plus a tremendous number of calories. His regimen was a new concept in bodybuilding, with emphasis on diet rather than exercise. Larry, indeed, an inspiration to young men and women who think that an undersized, underweight kid hasn’t a chance. HE HAS!

All of us have gotten carried away at one time or another with trying to find that one magical or secret supplement that will give us the incredible muscle and strength gains that we’re more than willing to work so hard to achieve, but just don’t seem to come quick enough. Some of the newer supplements on the market (Creatine being the best example) do work incredibly well for many people. However I always remind my clients that for continued gains they must stick with the basics of good fitness & nutrition. And for more than four decades desiccated liver tablets have been a mainstay of good bodybuilding nutrition.

If we could turn the bodybuilding clock back a few decades, we would be able to clearly see how liver tablets came into prominence as a sports nutrition supplement. Stories from some of the old timers telling of phenomenal gains being made on 100 plus liver tablets a day are very common. (These were the 7.5 or 10 grain tablets, an intake of 25 -30 tablet per day would equate to this amount due to the higher potency now available.) Strength, size, and endurance increases are always reported when an individual gets on a good quality desiccated liver supplement.

According to Vince Gironda, the “Iron Guru”, desiccated liver contains nucleic acids for proper amino-acid utilization, a growth factor and an anti-estrogen factor, which keeps testosterone levels high, and it is also a great anti-toxin.

Good nutrition, like good training, is simple – learn the basics and practice them consistently. A little knowledge and a lot more discipline is the secret. Apply yourself diligently – look ahead, don’t look back and don’t look for shortcuts. There simply aren’t any.

Health and fitness has climbed to the top of America’s popularity list and has become big business. As you’ve noticed, there’s a gym on every corner and a glut of diet and bodybuilding formulas to pack on muscle and burn off fat. Competition is fierce, the promises are bizarre and we’re all confused, suspicious and eventually numb. We have on our hands a zillion ways to diet, feed ourselves and live our lives for fitness.

In an ideal world, everyone would take a long-term approach to dieting, trying to lose weight/fat gradually. They’d make small changes to their eating habits, activity patterns, or both. But we don’t live in an ideal world there are situations when that simply won’t work. Or where people simply aren’t willing to be patient. Maybe they need to drop weight fast for a special event, or they are an athlete or bodybuilder who has to get in shape and is under a time crunch. Maybe they just want the diet over as quickly as possible. Whatever the case, sometimes you need a way to drop both weight and fat quickly to reach your goals.

Imagine a community where all children are empowered with the skills and self confidence to succeed, a community where adults reach out to inspire and to Dare to Dream.

For years, the “The Legend” himself, Larry Scott ruled supreme over bodybuilding. He dominated every aspect of the sport. The first to take it to the super level of mass. The first Mr. Olympia in history, the first multiple winner of the title Mr. Olympia and the first Mr. America, Mr. Universe, Mr. Olympia winner he was unstoppable and untouchable. Even today, almost fifty six years later, Larry Scott is a personality in bodybuilding people still seek information from and about. There may very well have been more articles and stories done on Larry Scott than any bodybuilder in the entire history of the sport. Larry did and continues to recognize and appreciate his fans.

I felt it mandatory to set aside a great deal of space to divulge his advance training techniques for the first time. In fact, you will be so impressed with Larry’s advanced knowledge of bodybuilding that you can benefit and incorporate some of Larry’s unique training methods in your own programs.

The Evolution of Better Ideas

Coming up with better ideas, therefore, is more than simply an activity, it’s an an attitude-an attitude of never being satisfied with the way things are; an attitude of always to serve the marketplace better, no matter what everyone else is doing.

Nearly all new ideas are built upon past innovations that have preceded them. Ideas are a team process. Some of your team members are innovators from the past “Larry Scott” who have provided the foundation that you can build upon. Others are the club owners, buyers, trainers, and mangers who can tell you about needs that are unfulfilled, or problems that are not solved. Still others are the users who discover the flaws that become the basis for your next attempt to serve the marketplace better. At Ring of Fire, I don’t pay much attention to what our competition is doing, only to what the marketplace needs. And I do my best to come up with better ideas.

My objective here is to keep Larry Scott name alive and make sure his knowledge, philosophy and goodwill toward health & fitness will live on. I hope you’ll understand that I’m doing this because Larry is my teacher and mentor. I truly respect the man! If you read his courses or book’s, you’ll understand how brilliant he is. You cannot fail to benefit from them.

Training at the Gym

When I walk into a gym for a workout, I instinctively think of Larry, for that is the profound effect he has on me. Students I have trained relate the same feeling to me as if he were watching them. I always ask my students to promise me they will tell people it was the “The Legend’s” methods that gave them their physique, so that his methods and ideas will live on. I’m not criticizing anybody, but this is how most people train.” I pointed to a fellow in the gym, a local bodybuilding hero who’d won a few contests and was a steroid user. “He’s probably here six days per week,” I explained, “but when he comes in he doesn’t do very much. He thinks that just being in the gym and taking steroids is going to increase his physique, which will probably happen with the steroids.” I told the kid to watch this guy. He was doing the bench press for his chest, but the bench press is not a chest exercise. The neck press is, as Larry taught. He grunted and groaned and grunted and groaned, did about 7 or 8 reps, and then sat there for ten minutes looking at himself in the mirror. Then he got up and went for a drink of water. A few minutes later he came back and did another set. He grunted and groaned some more and then went into the next room and b.s’d with some guys for 10 or 15 minutes before doing another set.

When he’d finished his chest, he did his delts the same way. He read the bulletin board, did about 4 sets, and left. Most guys spend hours at the gym and tell their girlfriends about their long, hard workouts. Well, this guy did practically nothing. He spent more time reading the bulletin board, drinking the water, and looking at himself in the mirror than he did working out. There was nothing intense to his workout.

Another question some guys asked me, “What about personal trainers? How come you’re a personal trainer and (pointing to another fellow in the gym who was doing personal training) he’s certified?” So he said, “Certified by whom? I know that guy’s methods. He’ll tell you to eat gobs and gobs of complex carbohydrates. Look at the people he trains. Are they making any progress? No.

You’re going to get into the gym 4 times a week and you’re going to work out Monday 2 hours, Tuesday 2 hours, Thursday 2 hours, Friday 2 hours, and then you’re going to go home. These people spend two and three hours a day in a gym and their personal trainer killing them. Why? Because otherwise they don’t feel like they have got their money’s worth. They don’t understand Larry Scott’s “Bio-Phase Training Systems.”

Larry Scott proved – that the only way you can increase the size of the muscle is by what is called the Bio-Phase Training Systems: The greatest amount of work in the least amount of time. How much work you do doesn’t matter. How fast you do it is what counts. The principle was proven conclusively more then fifty five years ago by Vince, and that’s one of the method’s Larry adapted.