I am thrilled and honored to once again work the Muscle and Performance Magazine booth at Olympia this year! Please come by the booth for free magazines and photo opportunities!
Olympia will take place on September 26th through 29th, 2013 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
http://www.muscleandperformancemag.com/
The fitness world is packed with people who are trying to make their mark, so it has become increasingly more difficult to stand out in the crowd. Let’s look at the common characteristics among fitness people who are successful. They are all incredibly fit, attractive, photogenic, good with performing on-camera, and have a wide appeal to consumers. But successful fitness people have one very critical quality which they share: they know the importance of BRANDING. It is no surprise that the pool of beautiful, fit people who are scrambling for stardom is considerably large, which makes it vital for fitness people to establish something unique and marketable if they want to rise to the top of the heap.
How does one approach such a task? The first thing to do is to define your main audience. You can look at trends from social media to see who is following you and target the largest group. Then you need to determine what it is about you that grabs that target audience, whether it is your age, your gender, a specific training style, a distinctive look, a great product, etc. Once you have done that, you can use hashtags on social media to describe your unique qualities and to spark the interest of your target audience. If you have a certain key phrase you use all the time, USE IT! It is astonishing how effective using a key phrase can be in promoting your personality.
Make sure you have a website which is updated regularly, and direct your followers to that website whenever possible. Though having a slick website is a nice bonus, it is more important to have SOMETHING for followers to go to, even if it is a free site like Wix. Many people will just shy away from fitness personalities who do not have a site established. There are several website template sites which are decent and which provide all the basics you need. Once you have established your brand, you can always upgrade to a more complex or detailed site.
On another note, I am always surprised by how many people want to establish a foothold in the fitness industry, but do not have business cards. I cannot tell you how unprofessional you look when you are trying to network, only to tell interested parties that you do not have a business card to hand to them. Business cards are pretty inexpensive these days, and in some cases free (Vistaprint.com is one site which offers free cards), so GET ON IT!
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY BREAKDOWN
Olympia is looming around the corner, with more total prize money being awarded among the eight different divisions. The big granddaddy is Mr. Olympia, which will award $650,000 to the champion. The 212, Ms. Olympia, Fitness and Figure champions will take home a respectable, albeit much smaller, purse of $60,000 for each division.
Now that Bikini Olympia is approaching its fourth year, with three different women having attained the titles in previous years (Sonia Gonzales in 2010, Nicole Nagrani in 2011, and Nathalia Melo in 2012), the purse has been set at $40,000 for this year.
The two newest divisions in the NPC and IFBB will enjoy their freshman year on the Olympia stage, with correspondingly small purses for Men’s Physique and $10,000 for Women’s Physique. There is no doubt that this prize money will increase in coming years as the newer divisions continue to make their mark in the bodybuilding world.
Here is a summary of the prize money for Olympia 2013:
Mr. Olympia: $650,000
212 Showdown: $60,000
Ms. Olympia: $60,000
Fitness Olympia: $60,000
Figure Olympia: $60,000
Bikini Olympia: $40,000
Men’s Physique Showdown: $10,000
Women’s Physique Showdown: $10,000
Total: $950,000
If you are looking for a great pill and supplement storage container which has large bins and is sturdy enough for travel, you should consider getting craft storage containers. The container which I love is by CraftMates and was purchased about four years ago from Michaels Arts and Crafts. This container can be found on Amazon:
Here is the company description of the product:
APOTHECARY PRODUCTS-CraftMates Lockables: Organizers. Build your own customized storage system! Whatever your craft of choice with Lockables Organizers you can keep everything neat and tidy and right at hand when you need it. Just choose your storage case and individual organizers based on your specific organizing needs. The patented lockbar system of the organizers allows you to open one bin at a time so there is no bin spillage or migration! Perfect for brads; beads; buttons; sequins; needles; pins; embellishments and more! This package contains one 14 compartment clear plastic organizer (1-1/4x9x4-1/4in) with purple lockbar. Imported.
I have used many different types of pill organizers and have been unimpressed by all of them. The rotating organizers seem to rotate too much when in a bag, spilling the contents, screwtop containers and towers unscrew in bags, and the rectangular organizers have lids which either pop open or break after prolonged use. The CraftMates container is a stark exception. In order to open a bin, you have to press a latch at the end. I find this mechanism superior to the locking pill organizers I have seen. Apparently beads and buttons are deemed more precious than supplements!
I have used this organizer every day for the last four years and have traveled with it, completely incident free. I swear by these containers and think everyone who takes a lot of supplements should be using these.
It is human nature to allow ourselves little nibbles of so-called “forbidden” foods from time to time. The danger arises when such nibbles become so frequent that a pattern of rationalization over the dietary transgression begins to set in. Bear in mind that even a small indulgence on a regular basis will most likely end up on your waistline. The more control you have over your daily food intake, the greater the chance that you will reach or maintain your fitness and weight loss goals.
Those of you who do not compete can follow a clean diet 90% with the occasional treat and suffer minimal consequences. However, for those of you who are planning on hitting the stage, you need to take your meal plans seriously and follow them as much as possible. Every time you take a small nibble, you risk derailing your contest prep efforts, sometimes enough to push you considerably behind. If you know you are 3 weeks out from a contest, why mess with anything other than your scheduled cheat meal? The best thing to do is tough it out and stick with the program.
Many competitors ask me about condiments and sauces, and whether it is all right to use them on their meals. What I do not like about many condiments is that they contain high fructose corn syrup. Generally, I have competitors (I also advise the same for regular folks) avoid anything containing sugar at all costs. Another issue with condiments and sauces is that they add more calories to your meal. Add such things to a couple of meals a day, and this all adds up.
I have also had competitors ask me which alcoholic beverages they can indulge in on the weekends. Of course my response is along the lines of “none”, but if one insists on having ONE drink over the weekend, vodka based drinks are the cleanest option. You may be wondering if I indulge in libations from time to time, and the answer is yes. I have a particular fondness for wine and sake. What I do is confine my consumption to one weekend evening per week with my cheat meal. Everything in moderation is truly the key.
I am a huge believer in the antioxidant benefits of Vitamin C and encourage its use systemically and topically. Vitamin C (also known as l-ascorbic acid), is fantastic for lightening up brown spots of all kinds, and also enhances the integrity of the skin, making it firmer by boosting collagen production. Vitamin C is also a great exfoliator and leaves skin with a healthy glow.
There are a myriad of cleansers, toners, serums and moisturizers available these days, but many of these products can be quite expensive. One example is Obagi-C Cleansing Gel which is fantastic but which costs about $34 for 6 ounces, so I use Earth Science Clarifying Facial Wash which is about $7 for 8 ounces. I have been using the Eaarth Science brand for years and I absolutely love it!
The vitamin C serums tend to be the priciest of the vitamin C skincare products, so many people will omit this product when I honestly think it is the most important type of product for aging skin. In an effort to help people achieve great skin while on a budget, here is a do-it-yourself vitamin C serum formula you can mix up at home. Some people use glycerin when mixing up vitamin C serum at home, but I find this substance to be troublesome for oily skin, and I am not a big fan of essential oils because they can often cause irritation on sensitive skin. I personally like the formulation below because it is good for oilier and reactive skin types. If you have severely reactive skin, you can use distilled water instead of rose water.
Make sure to purchase a dark glass (either dark amber or cobalt blue) container, perhaps one with a dropper tip or a spray nozzle, to store your serum. The dark glass container is essential for preventing breakdown of the unstable vitamin C molecule. I also advise storing this in the fridge to maximize potency.
Dr. Naito’s DIY Vitamin C Serum:
1/4 teaspoon Vitamin C (aka l-ascorbic acid) powder or crystals (you can find this at most health food stores)
1 teaspoon hyaluronic acid
1 tablespoon rose water
If you use crystals instead of powder, make sure to pulverize the crystals well with a mortar and pestle before adding the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients well. This yields about a 6% strength serum. Apply to cleansed skin at night. This supply should last about ten to fourteen days.
If you want a stronger concentration, you can mix the following ratio of ingredients for a 10% concentration of vitamin C. If you experience stinging or burning, return to the lower potency.
Dr. Naito’s DIY High Potency Vitamin C Serum:
1/4 teaspoon Vitamin C powder or crystals
1 teaspoon hyaluronic acid
1-1/4 teaspoon rose water ***note that the amount of rose water used is smaller than in above formulation.
The advent of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigation has been a godsend, especially for people with poor spatial orientation or sense of direction. Even those like me with adequate directional skills who were getting tired of thumbing through Thomas Guides have been grateful for GPS navigation. As a matter of fact, I can no longer imagine having a car without navigation built into it (thankfully, many car manufacturers are making this feature standard in some car models), and when I travel I make good use of the navigation application on my cell phone.
Here is what I don’t like about GPS navigation. I don’t think people pay nearly as much attention to where they are going, and instead act sort of like drones as they follow the directions on the navigation system without looking at their surroundings. It is as though the virtual roads are more ingrained in our memories than the actual terrain on which we are traveling. This means that we never fully experience the mental mapping that usually occurs when we are fully aware of our surroundings. In addition, if we make a wrong turn, GPS systems simply recalculate, so we never learn to re-map, and instead blindly follow the adjusted prompts.
While typing this I ran across an excellent article on The Boston Globe site which is a must-read.
Honestly, I think we need to pay more attention to the real world in front of us instead of allowing technology to turn us into idiots. Go ahead and use the GPS, but be aware of your surroundings as you travel around. Your brain will benefit.
These days we walk around with cell phones that are technological marvels, a far cry from the behemoth units from the original mobile phone era. The term “SmartPhone” is an appropriate description for the most part, since Android phones rival the storage capabilities and functions of our laptop computers. We can do Google searches, map out a travel route, check our work schedules, update social media, listen to music, read books and watch movies and videos on our phones now. Residential land lines have become all but obsolete now. Another thing that has become fairly obsolete is the point and shoot camera. Cell phones have such high quality cameras now that there is no reason to have a separate dedicated camera.
Because our phones can do so much, it is not uncommon to see people constantly distracted by their phones. I have actually seen people together at a restaurant, seated at a table, and looking at their phones without speaking to each other at all. I have also witnessed (and been guilty of same) people leave the table to use the restroom and look immediately at their phones, while their meal mates immediately look at their phones as well. Years ago such things would have been regarded as incredibly rude, but are to an extent part of the accepted norm now.
I have also noticed that many people will look at their phones right before going to sleep at night and right upon waking every morning. Whatever happened to looking over at your mate or spending time with your pets? Is your phone more precious than they are? A cell phone should never be the first thing to grab in the morning (though many people have resorted to using their cell phone alarms to wake them up in the mornings) or the last thing they look at in the evening. Cell phones have become a modern-day security blanket.
Perhaps the one thing that frustrates me the most is that many people will engage in lengthy text exchanges. If there is a great deal to be said, especially if there is the exchange of a lot of information, or worse yet, a heated argument, it seems to me that speaking on the phone would be much easier and more considerate to the texting partner than continuing to engage in behavior that avoids inflection and a true connection with another human being. In addition, all that texting aggravates the thumbs so much that a medical condition called “Gamekeeper’s Thumb” should at this point be renamed “Texter’s Thumb”. Besides, how real are our communications with each other when we are so busy using abbreviations like “LOL”, “TY”,”OMG”, and emoticons like :-), 😦 and ;-P ?
Come on, guys! You might not remember that your cell phones are equipped to handle voice calls along with all the other nifty features that you allow yourself to get distracted by. Let’s not allow basic communication to break down as a result of being tethered to our cell phones. 
Over the years, numerous medical studies have explored the idea that ibuprofen interferes with muscle growth, with conflicting conclusions. I know that there are some weightlifters who will take ibuprofen on a daily basis to combat numerous pain issues so that they can lift more comfortably, but this is something I would NEVER recommend. As a physician I am well aware of ibuprofen’s remarkable ability to shut down acute inflammation, but I am also aware of the risks of taking high dose ibuprofen over an extended period of time. I think it is also important to bear in mind that 1) there are different types of inflammation found in the body, and 2) some inflammation is actually necessary for optimal muscle growth.
The reason why I broach this subject is that I also know people who lift who stubbornly refuse to take ibuprofen under ANY circumstances, stating that it isn’t worth the impaired muscle growth. These people could be in agony from a muscle strain, bursitis, arthritis flare-up, tennis elbow or any number of conditions which arise from localized inflammation, yet will refuse to take anything. I will see them at the gym, struggling to move the weight that they are accustomed to lifting, only to cut their lifting regimen short or sharply reduce the weight lifted. Some of these people are so intent on pushing through the pain that they often make things WORSE and have to stop training completely until their injuries subside. Now that is just stupid. It makes far more sense to tackle the acute inflammation systemically with ibuprofen and rest the area for a few days so that one can return to full capacity, rather than risk even greater injury which essentially forces one to stop training.
I recently dealt with a bone spur which asserted itself with such exquisite pain that I was unable to bear weight fully on my left foot for 4 days. Instead of being stubborn and refusing to take anything, I took 800 milligrams of ibuprofen twice a day with food for a week. I also refrained from doing any high impact moves which would aggravate my foot and wore flat shoes for a week. Within the first 2 hours of taking the first dose of ibuprofen, I went from feeling like I was stepping on a knife to walking with only a slight limp. Was I concerned about adversely affecting my body’s ability to build muscle? Certainly not. Healing was my primary concern. Besides, there would have been no way that I could have trained the way I normally do while dealing with such outright pain, so it made sense to shut down the inflammatory process which was causing all the discomfort in the first place by taking the dreaded ibuprofen. I was smart about how I took it, and I did not take it for an extended period of time. Thankfully, it was a successful therapeutic treatment and I am glad I did it.
With all this said, I am still very cautious about prescribing high dose ibuprofen. The effects on the gastrointestinal tract are significant, so it is imperative to eat when taking this medication. I also caution people against taking too many doses throughout the day. A very real example occurred with a friend who was apparently taking high doses of ibuprofen (600-800 mg 4 times per day) without food for severe daily headaches. This practice resulted in a peptic ulcer which bled enough to cause her to pass out twice, landing her in the emergency room.
For those of you who have a habit of taking ibuprofen chronically, even if you are only taking 200 or 400 mg at a time, I highly recommend that you discontinue such chronic use. It is best to reserve ibuprofen for acute flare-ups.
