Total Physique Online

The last time I had an entry for a traditional workout was Sept. 28 2007.

Ironically, on that day I was coming off a 3 month layoff, or thereabouts.

The fire that had taken out home had taken place nearly 6 months prior to the Sept. 28 entry. The fire introduced a huge amount of chaos into my life, and so many areas of my life had suffered tremendous blows. I had not been able to eat well and my training was more or less non-existent. Had been for months; and judging by the numbers of that Sept 28 workout my body was clearly beginning to show the combined affect of several risk factors: stress, age, starvation, illness, poor training habits.

Yep. I was getting weaker, losing muscle density and my health was taking a beating. Little did I know then that things would get worse. Much worse.
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This is my first post in a long while. Anyone who reads this web site with any regularity knows of the trials and tribulations of my homeless situation, not to mention my hospitalization with a partially blocked small bowel which nearly killed me. Yup. Life has put yours truly through the ringer and back again. So, the site has suffered in so far as I have not had the metal (or mental) energy to add new content to it.
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I stood in the middle of the gym. All around me were thickly muscled lifters, power racks and benches. The gym was buzzing with activity.

As I recall, the benches and racks stood out like a sore thumb. This was some of the strongest looking equipment I had ever seen. The frames of the benches and squat racks were white, and the tubing that comprised the frames that formed the pillars of the racks and benches was thick and stout. Not surprisingly, the athletes in the gym were equally thick and stout, heavily muscled from stem to stern. What stood out the most about these athletes was their hands.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! You are looking terrific!
Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

Staying The Course

My very first job working for a gym was as the weekend manager for Vic Tanny’s on Journal Square in Jersey City, circa 1961. Friday they gave me a key and told me I started Saturday at 9am. Imagine, 19 years old and I’m already a gym manager… I’m on my way, I’m a cool guy. As I finished my workout that Friday evening I felt my lats and triceps assume a permanent flexed position — it sort of hurt, but it was the price one had to pay. Saturday morning I witnessed a miracle. I unlocked the prominent glass gym door at the top of the broad staircase and the gym was gone. Overnight. Where did it go? I did a series of 360’s with my mouth open and it still didn’t appear. Gone to the next county, no doubt. I didn’t need no stinkin’ gym job anyway.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree
Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

Slow Me Down Lord

Universally, the word ‘fast’ implies swiftness. We live in a fast world.

Fast is the speed at which I traverse the freeway en route to the gym unless traffic dictates otherwise. Fast is how quickly I lose my cool when the traffic dictates otherwise. Fast is the rate at which time passes after turning 30. Fast is the food the majority of oversize people eat across the thriving nations. Fast is not used to describe the clip at which we build muscle and power. Fast is the talk of promoters when advertising sensational products to do just that.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree
Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

What’s the purpose of the newsletter, anyway?

Certainly, Laree presents links to entertaining and informative articles relative to your interests, and offers cogent commentaries. Very stimulating! I, on the other hand, in search of something qualified to say, pluck at my keyboard like a hungry rooster. I finally give up and head for the gym. This is done, of course, with a grand invitation amid my chicken-scratching for you to join me.

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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree
Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

A gym is any place an athlete and his training apparatus meet: chinning and dipping bars in the basement, the track and field at a local high school, stairs and hills in the neighborhood, a punching bag hanging in the garage or a bar and a heap of dinged plates in the corner of a bedroom.
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Dave, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery!! God Bless You and Laree
Reprinted with kind permission from Laree and Dave Draper (thanks guys!)
From Dave Draper’s Post Column

I park a block from the gym and can hear the clanking of plates echoing down the street. Come to think of it, I hear the clanking of plates in my dreams, under anesthesia and under water.
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Dr. Mauro G. Di Pasquale: Increase Growth Hormone Levels
Reprinted with kind permission from Dr. Mauro G. Di Pasquale
From MetabolicDiet.com

Boosting Endogenous Growth Hormone – The Better Way

12/9/2005 - Increasing your own natural endogenous levels of growth hormone is safer and in the long run more effective for increasing growth hormone levels and maximizing body composition than using exogenous GH. There are two main reasons for this view.

The Problems with Exogenous Growth Hormone

Growth hormone levels decline as you get older. And athletes have found that increased levels of growth hormone helps to optimize body composition, increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat.
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Low Carb Dieting 101 - The Different Diets

In the low carb group of diet gurus there are proponents of every level of dietary carbohydrate intake from the almost zero amounts espoused by the ketogenic diet used to treat some forms of epilepsy in children to the Zone diet that proposes that only 40% of the daily calorie intake come from carbohydrates.
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