"If everybody jumped off a cliff," my father used to say, "would you?" This was a few years ago. It was the summer a wild cougar killed a jogger in Sacramento. The summer my doctor wouldn't give me anabolic steroids.

I actually wrote this article with Personal Trainers, Strength Coaches, and "boyfriends" (who are generally stupid and ignorant, but I didn't have to tell you girls that did I?) in mind.

I first discovered this style of training approximately two years ago in an article written by Matt Brzycki, Coordinator of Health Fitness, Strength and Conditioning , Princeton University. Metabolic conditioning is essentially a combination of intensive muscular training coupled with intensive aerobic training. Make no mistake, this combination is a potent one.

As I see it and in its most basic form, "metabolic conditioning" is simply a method of strength training that adequately taxes both the body's musculature and cardiovascular system, regardless of the specific protocol employed. There are two factors which must be present in order to satisfy these criteria: heavy weights and minimal rest periods. As such, a high level of intensity and hard work are achieved.

In the bodybuilding community in the last 10 years or so, low carb diets have become all the rage. Once deemed "fad" diets by experts, "dieticians," and doctors among others, the results cannot be denied.

To even the most casual bodybuilder the Internet is a great source of information. There are many quality sites which turn out excellent information on training, supplementation, dieting and anabolics. However, with the good, comes the bad. For every great article written by a well versed writer, there are five articles that are so factually incorrect that they are embarrassing to the whole genre of bodybuilding journalism.

One of the most common questions I see on the world wide web's new bodybuilding population involves the ECA stack and fat burning. Some bodybuilders favor a two day on, two day off cycle; others say that receptor downgrade occurs after 2 weeks; and still other's quote longer times of 2 months. Well they're all wrong. Yes the notion that you have to cycle ECA or it's fat burning effects will dwindle to nothing are simply not true.

Bodybuilders are infamous for their love affair with protein. The way iron-pumpers see it, muscle is protein, so they associate eating more dietary protein with gaining more muscle. Devouring egg whites by the dozen, meat by the pound and protein powder by the bucketful is the norm for hard training physique athletes. But is all this carnivorism really necessary?

Insulin is a small polypeptide produced by the pancreatic beta cells. Insulin is crucial for the transport of glucose into the cell. The hormone binds receptor sites on the cell membrane, which promotes movement of glucose- transport proteins from the interior to the surface of the cell...

This month, with the second in a series of four articles on insulin use in bodybuilding, I'll show you where to properly inject insulin and the proper method of preparing and injecting insulin.

Known here in Europe as Gamma-OH, and in the US and Canada as GHB, gamma-hydroxybutyrate is a novel compound that increases sociability and may function as an antidepressant. Its sale was banned in the US in 1990, in spite of the fact that there is no scientific evidence that it posed any health risk when used responsibly.

During my first martial art study visit in Japan in 1990, while I was still at Narita's airport, having been out of the plane for only a few minutes, I had a very revealing conversation with the officer in charge of visas and passports control...

All strength and power sport athletes need to develop high levels of leg strength for optimal performance. Leg strength contributes to speed, power, balance, and agility, key components in almost all sports. Traditional resistance training programs typically overlook single-leg exercises due to their difficulty and awkwardness. This is unfortunate because single-limb training is extremely important in developing sport-performance skills, as well as being of assistance in the development of muscle size and strength.

Very few trainees ignore the importance of sets and reps. Every bodybuilder worthy of that name knows that 8-10 reps is optimal for size development, that 6 reps or less is best for strength development and that 15 reps or more is better suited for the improvement of muscular endurance. Or is it...?
You see, not a lot of trainees are aware of the tempo-training variable and as a result they are likely to end up short-siding their muscle gains.

There was once a Zen master of great renown who lived in the mountain. One day, he received the visit of a young philosopher whom had traveled from afar especially to meet him. That philosopher came under high recommendations by his teachers, so the master agreed to see him. As the two sat under a tree to discuss, the subject hastily came to what the master could teach the young philosopher...

A big question and area of debate is and continues to be what level of AS to start with at the beginning of a cycle. As some of you who have read some of my posts on the subject know, I'm not in favor of high dose to start. The main reason I'm against it is that high dosing could be a likely source of injury.

The following article was submitted to me by IFBB pro Günter Schlierkamp during the summer of 1999. It is important to remember that Günter is a chemically enhanced bodybuilder. I would suggest that beginners not follow this routine to the letter but use it as a guide to design your own routine.

What if I told you that you could gain muscle and lose fat by eating one meal a day? You'd think I was crazy and lock me away with Mike Mentzer in the bodybuilding loony bin. But hear me out and you may be as intrigued as I was when I discovered this diet.

The theory behind Animalbolics dates back over a year on the Varix message board. It started by pointing out the flaws in the ketogenic diet. The idea has been thrown around by various message boards and was soon appearing under a different name; "The Warrior Diet" (hmm I wonder if the wrestler follows or endorses this diet).

This is my own attempt to explain the very basics of how the components of this diet work. This is more or less a lesson into how hormones affect the way our body uses food.

Why is it that those of us who are out of school, and on our own to train can sometimes motivate ourselves to find the time to train and maintain a training schedule, and other times not? Sometimes we can get into the exercise habit and other times not? How can we make training part of our schedule?

Chances are you've all read the eight "Gym Clowns" installments and have laughed yourselves to tears. Also, chances are you've all thought to yourself: "It can't get worse than this." Well folks, it can, and it has...