Fruits, Nuts, Greens - Charles Fraser (1978)

 

Here's a taste . . . sample

example:

Prep time and 4-6 hours of slow-cooking 

gives you many minutes to get sloshed.

Three sheets to the wind at 10 a.m.

Asea on a drunken tide

sans compass, no less! 

Get me a bucket, sailor. 

Blog Author note: This is an article, not an argument starter.
It's FOOD, you idiot. Fruits, veggies, grains . . . FOOD. 

Author's note: An increasing amount of interest in the vegetarian type diet among bodybuilders and lifters makes the following story very timely. Tho it is written as a story (YES!), it is an actual occurrence according to the author and the Mickey mentioned is a real person. 

The author also promises us an article about a leading powerlifter who is a vegetarian. We look forward to this and hope readers will give consideration to these things and report their own experiences.  

"If you want to be strong and have big muscles, you gotta eat meat and lots of animal protein," the big fellow admonished the slender young beginner as he put the squat bar back on the rack. The big fellow wasn't an outstanding example of bulk and strength, but nevertheless Mickey, sitting nearby, winced as he listened to the conversation.

"Yeah, I know," agreed the slim novice as he lay back on the bench and prepared for a set of bench presses, "lots of meat, eggs, milk, and milk products." 

Mickey winced again, but decided to put the conversation out of his mind until he finished his next set of squats with 250. "I'll take the same weight," Mickey said to the big fellow.

"Okay," said the big guy, and added with a friendly smile, "Man, you sure are strong for your size. Hey kid, look at this powerhouse squat." 

The kid finished his bench presses, sat up, and watched respectfully as Mickey squeezed out a hard set of 10 reps.

"Wow, you sure are strong," exclaimed the young kid when Mickey replaced the barbell on the squat rack. "How much do you weigh?" 

"One seventy-five," said Mickey and smiled. 

"Man, you're built. How tall are you?" 

"Five eight," Mickey replied, still breathing hard from the 10 reps.

"Man, if you gain any more muscle you'll look like a Mr. America." 

"Thanks. I would like to gain another 10 pounds or so and weigh in the 190-200 range. I think that would be the ultimate muscular weight for my height and bone structure." 

"I bet you eat lots of meat to do that," enthused the kid. 

Mickey paused a few seconds, not knowing whether to open the floodgates or not. Finally he smiled and answered. "No, I won't be eating any meat actually." 

"Really?" the kid ejaculated, astounded. (Couldn't come up with a better verb than ejaculated?). He hesitated a second. "Well, then I guess you'll be taking lots of milk and eggs, huh?" 

"No," Mickey laughed, now anticipating what was to come, "never touch the stuff." 

"What? You never touch the stuff," the kid was incredulous. "You must be kidding! A guy as strong as you?" 

"Yep, that's right," Mickey laughed, thoroughly enjoying the kid's amazement. 

While the kid stood there with his mouth hanging open, the big fellow, sitting nearby with a puzzled frown on his face, suddenly had just gotten a brilliant idea. "Well, if you don't eat meat, eggs, or milk products, you must be taking lots of protein supplements." 

"I hate to disappoint you guys, but no, I don't take supplements either." 

"Well, what do you eat?" The big fellow and the kid made the query in unison, visibly shaken by this revelation.

The two inquisitors were now all ears. Mickey sadistically took advantage of their anxiety, remained silent for several seconds and then using a dramatic pause between words, enunciated slowly, "Fruit, nuts, and greens."

"Fruits, nuts, and greens?" exploded the kid, ejaculating hard on the far wall as he hung by the neck from a weighted lat pulldown and took his final breath. 

 

           

No connection whatsoever to this article, but 

a wonderful alternate history trilogy to read:

Cities of the Red Night (1981) 

The Place of Dead Roads (1983)

The Western Lands (1987)

"And no animal products?" seconded the the big fellow (Black Pete, keeping with the Mickey Mouse fantasy). 

"That's right," beamed Mickey at his interlocutor's discomfort. 

"Well, I'll be," the big guy said. "You're a vegetarian." 

"Righto," Mickey now cleared his throat, preparing for the long verbal discourse that he knew he would have to deliver. "But then, you two are vegetarians also. You just don't eat like vegetarians, that's all." 

"But how can I be a vegetarian if I don't eat like one? The big fellow was now intrigued. The kid stood there uncomprehendingly. 

"What I mean is simply that biologically speaking all men are vegetarian animals -- or more correctly speaking, vegetarian-fruitarians." 

"Fruitarian?" responded the reanimated from a hanging death kid, with a glassy look in his eye. The big fellow began to stroke his jaw thoughtfully.

"Yes, fruitarian. We're frugivores as opposed to carnivores." 

"But where do you get your protein?" asked the kid, still shaken from his temporal trip into the new and and and and yet again improved netherworld. Yawn. 

"Well, nuts are high in protein, but I don't worry about it."

"But nuts have all the precious bodily fluids but not all the amino acids," the kid said triumphantly, as if he had pulled his cannibalistic 'ace' out of a somewhat twisted magician's bloody-red rabbit hat.

Enough already. Take a rest with this schtuff, a-hole! Pause it! 

Speakin'-a which . . . nicely put together book. 

Section Two will likely be more appealing to this blog's readership

than its Section One "bodybuilding" brother. 

 

"It doesn't matter. A cow eats nothing but grass and grains, but readily turns it into complete protein in the form of muscle and bone." 

"Yeah, but we're not cows. We're humans!" The kid was hot now. 

"Hey, shut up and let him talk," interjected the big fellow, now completely absorbed in what Mickey was saying. "Yes, we have a larger brain, can talk, think abstractly, and have considerably less hair, but biologically speaking we are just smart (shaven and lost in self-imposed illusion) apes. Our teeth, saliva, stomach, liver and intestinal tract 

are basically the same -- made for chewing, digesting and assimilating vegetation." 

Mickey paused, then continued now that he had the floor unopposed. 

"If we were carnivores, we would have the physical equipment for killing and eating other animals, such as claws, fangs, rows of pointed ripping and tearing teeth, or poison ducts for killing our prey. We would have a huge liver, as does the lion or tiger, for filtering out the great amount of acidic waste found in meat. We wouldn't need the long digestive tract we have for digesting plant material. We wouldn't have the many molars we do for grinding up all kinds of vegetation, nor would we secrete the enzyme, ptyalin, in our saliva for pre-digestion of carbohydrates in our mouth while we chew. Actually all the physical attributes in apes that make them frugivores are even more highly developed in man. In other words, if apes are frugivores, which they are, then man is the ARCHETYPE OF THE FRUGIVORE. That is, he is a super-vegetarian. 

The big fellow thoughtfully shook his head and slowly repeated the words, 'archetype of the frugivore.'   

Note: I like food and am glad I have some at home, no matter what it is. There's nothing funnier to me than the agonizing ordeal some anal dicktards choose to put themselves through in order to be "healthier" or "live longer" or "be their best" by following a specific nitpicking nightmare of a diet that usually changes time after time after time depending on what "health experts" get paid to promote. No one cares what the fuck you eat, bozo. I know I don't give a shit how long you bloody live or if your just-plain brain gets worn down like an old bike tire and can no longer hold the air of what you believe human "thought" is. Dementia? More like finally realizing you had jack shit to say all along that was even mildly original or creative. Shut up and lemme digest what food I do have. It's all a huge deal, ain't it just, when you're so fucking spoiled and blind that "diet" is oh so important to you. Not my kind of people, them types, not them at all. No sir. 

"Well, all I know is that the big bodybuilders and lifting champions eat lots of meat, and I wanna be like them, so that's what I'm gonna eat!" the kid indignantly walked out of the weight room with an "I've washed my hands of the whole affair" look on his face. Big mistake made by a small bozo. Fucking fool could've asked about Mickey's approach to getting a bigger squat, a more mature and rock-hard body, etc., etc. Nope. Duh, what do you eat? Fucking idiot kid. 

The big fellow now lumbered over to Mickey and said musingly, "You know, come to think about it, there was a strict vegetarian bodybuilder named Monte Wolford (center, below, not to be confused with Mickey's pal Bugs B.).  

Also and of little importance . . . Did you know that the "sissy squat" was originally called 

the Monte Wolford Squat? 

"He was not only well built and strong, but had tremendous endurance as well."

"Yes, I remember," Mickey said.

"And then I read, not long ago, that Bill "Peanuts" West out in California ate a great amount of peanuts over quite a period of time, and he's very bulky and VERY strong. I hear that Chuck Sipes and Bill Pearl are getting into vegetarianism in different way as well. (One might mention Doug Hepburn's vegetarian diet in his later years as well. Beans and rice, Baby. What. Ya figure force-feeding food like that for years won't have consequences?)

"But tell me, Mickey, just what do you eat?" 

"For breakfast today I had two grapefruits. For lunch I ate two whole tomatoes, a whole cucumber, a half-bunch of celery and about 1/4 pound of sunflower seeds. Before working out this evening I had two ripe pears. For supper tonight I'll probably have a large salad consisting of Romaine lettuce, peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, and an avocado, and then a quarter pound of almonds or pecans." 

"In other words, you eat nuts or seeds at two meals a day." 

"Only if I'm trying to gain weight and want more protein. Otherwise I eat nuts only once per day or less. Then I eat more fruit, salads, or cooked vegetables such as broccoli, christina broccolini, cauliflower, green beans, beets, zucchini squash, and others. However, I don't like to eat cooked food too often." 

"Because cooking destroys much of the food value, right?" 

"Right." We really should strive to be 100% raw food eaters (go fuck yourself and that idea, Mick. Let's burn.), just like our friend, the gorilla. 

"Tell me then, said the big fellow seriously. "I can see that you're well built and strong on this diet, but don't you think that you may be an exceptional person and that others would do better on the standard lots of meat diet?" 

"No, I'm not a 'natural'. I think such a diet would be good to try for anyone; to see how they make out after several months experimentation on it. (Or, just blindly have "faith" in what some yahoo states as fact-for-all and never learn a fucking thing about yourself. 'Oh look! More fascinating links from the Times health section. Odd how they continuously change their tune, ain't it just?')

"Most, if not all the top bodybuilders and lifters in this country are big meat and animal products eaters. But that is to be expected in a meat-eating country. The meat and milk industry owners have done a very successful sales job on us by convincing us that we should behave like ravenous carnivores in order to be properly nourished (and claim our true "manhood!" when not blocked up in the bathroom every morning). 

"Nevertheless, we have the greatest number of hospitals, the most cases of  degenerative diseases, and the greatest number of medics in this country. Many of these top lifters and physique men are not as healthy as you may think (fast forward to 2026 for a laugh here). There have been a shocking (but pleasantly amusing) number of deaths of well known bodybuilders and lifters in middle age (younger now) from heart trouble, cancer and other degenerative diseases. There are many who suffer from arthritis, bursitis, asthma, colds and other ailments (choose your heroes wisely and without social pressure)."

Mickey now put a light weight on the bench press bar and sat down on the bench to do a warmup set.

"In other words, you maintain that a guy who trains with weights and eats fruits, nuts, and greens the way you do would build just as much strength and size, and possibly be healthier?"

"And be more enduring, youthful and long-lived to boot," said Mickey, beginning his bench presses. 

"Well, I won't say that I'm convinced, but I think that you've really got something with this vegetarian bit. With the price of meat nowadays (fast forward to 2026 again), it will give me something to think about. Look, it's been nice talking with you, but I've got to go now. I'll see you next time. So long." The big guy strolled out of the weight room.

Mickey got up from his warmup set of bench presses. "So long," he called after the big fellow as the door closed behind his broad back. Then Mickey loaded up the bar to 300 pounds for his next set of bench presses. 

 

Enjoy Your Eating! 

          

 

The Magic Circle for Miraculous Results - Peary Rader (1964)

James Douglass with his first "Magic Circle" then known as the "Douglass Harness. Mr. Douglass is the inventor of this great aid to lifters and it gives him results when everything else seems to fail. 

 

More on the Magic Circle here: 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2010/01/magic-circle-carl-miller.html 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/09/jim-douglass-by-fred-howell-jim.html 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2010/06/magic-circle-and-its-uses-peary-rader.html 

Would you like to see your squat poundages go up 100 pounds in a short period of time? 

Would you like to feel the surge of power that comes from an overall growth of muscle bulk come faster and surer than ever before? 

This may sound like you need a touch of magic to make this come true, and that is just what we are going to tell you about in this article, THE MAGIC CIRCLE OF BODYBUILDING, a new and sensational device that makes the greatest of all exercises a real pleasure to perform and enables the user to make gains he has never dreamed possible before. 

A device that takes away the pain of a heavy bar cutting into the shoulders until the arms and shoulders go numb and you can no longer concentrate on the exercise for the discomfort that you must endure. 

Here is a device that takes away the fear some men have of the squat or deep knee bend - a fear that they will get down and not be able to get up again, especially if they are training alone with no one to assist them if they get stuck 

Here is a device that has enabled those who use it to squat with poundages they never dreamed possible.  

The author squatting with 425,

Magic Circle style. 

J.C. Hise claims it is the greatest invention since the wheel. He claims to have made 20 repetitions in the squat with 500 lbs. at around 60 years of age.

Your editor (photo above), some years ago, found that he could no longer do heavy squats (his favorite exercise) because the bar resting on the spinal processes with heavy weights would cause a distortion, pinch a nerve, and cause stomach disorders and other severe pains for weeks afterward. Now at the age of 54, and after doing little squatting for years, he finds in about three weeks he can easily go to 500 or more if he so desires; all with no pain or discomfort. It enables one to continue on with the greatest exercise yet discovered, the exercise Iron Man has pioneered for 30 years and which has probably done more for bodybuilding and weightlifting than any other single exercise - the Squat or Deep Knee Bend - KING OF EXERCISES. 

Peary was what you might call somewhat passionate about the Squat alright. 

People attending our gym know there is one exercise they will always be asked to perform and work hard at and that is the deep knee bend. Since introducing the magic circle (just read those two words in bold upper case as if they were from here on in) into the gym here at the Iron Man office, no one has used a bar for squats for months. Even the lady trainers find that the squat is a pleasure to perform and a favorite exercise - with the magic circle.  

Katie Brumbach, a.k.a. The Great Sandwina. How nicely a Magic Circle would have worked in this photo. Three-posts, three men. Solid construction and a sound, tight fit! She took the name "Sandwina" after defeating Eugen Sandow in a lifting contest in New York in 1902, lifting 300 lbs. overhead while he could only lift it to his chest. Unsubstantiated anecdotes tell of Katie jamming Sandow into his light box and punting the cunt clean off stage and into the front row. A fine time was said to be had by all, including the renowned bouncing Sandow-in-a-box (syphilis-bonus not included till later, shipping fees may apply, free toy for Sandwina inside). Yet more historical content and truth-telling, right here, right now. 

Some time earlier we mentioned that this was NEW. This was a mistake, for while it is new to most bodybuilders and weightlifters, it is not really new(s), for James Douglas(s) of Monticello, Utah developed this device back about 1952. 

He suffered from polio and the heartbreak of Iron Man magazine misspelling his last name throughout this entire article, and has used barbells to recover. Tho he practiced the squat, he never liked it for several reasons. 

One is that the bar cut into his shoulders so badly an "S" had to be removed from his surname, and made it quite painful. Another was that with the bar the shoulders he found, as others have, that it causes the shoulders to round forward and would not permit the chest to lift during hard squatting, thus causing a sort of potbellied effect. Many bodybuilders have steered away from heavy squats for this reason. He also tried the Hise Shoulder Shrug and found that he could not do it most effectively with the bar. 

Jim began casting around for some other method of supporting the weights at the shoulders in the squat, and at first built an oblong contraption of pipe with web straps over the shoulders and pins to slip the smallish men, er weights over. He used this for some time, later building a round ring using a castoff wagon tire to which he fastened the same straps made of webbing. This he found to be much superior to his first oblong style and in a few short weeks he gained 20 pounds of (more or less) muscular bodyweight. 

He found that this harness over his shoulders permitted him to stand upright with the shoulders normally back and the chest high and it permitted him to breathe high in the chest, whereas with the bar across the shoulders he had been forced to breathe in lower chest and abdomen. 

As a result of this he developed a very deep and high arched chest with a trim waist, and added the muscular bulk he has so long sought for a fine a powerful physique. 

At the same time a training friend of his who had suffered from stiff knees from lying in the mud during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, cured his knee trouble and gained from 170 lbs. to 220 lbs. at a height of 6'2" in a short time. His name: Ray McAlister. 

Because your arms are in a normal position you no longer have to suffer from cramps of the arms or shoulders or from their going to "sleep." This is worth a lot as this discomfort causes men to give up this wonderful exercise. 

Another advantage of this Magic Circle is that if you get stuck down in the low position you can place the hands against the thighs and push with them to assist yourself to the upright position so that you need not get stuck on the bottom of the squat listening to Howlin' Wolf laughing in your head. You see, there is no bar to slip off the shoulders if you remove your hands. 

With this device you can use the strictly upright squat with a block under the heels, or you can use the lean-forward type of squat, depending on your preference and your type of build. 

In use you place the ring on two supports or horses about two feet in height. Then load the ring up with plates on the upright pins supplied. When loaded to the desired poundage (and you can load it up to 1,000 lbs. if you like, for half or quarter squats), you step inside and place the two web straps over your shoulders and stand erect. If the ring is badly off balance, lower it and position yourself again. A little off balance will not bother. 

We find it most desirable to load the plates on the sides unless you are going to extremely heavy weights and you will have to load on both sides, front and back. Four loading pins are usually provided. 

After standing erect and adjusting the straps to a comfortable position on the shoulders, you slowly walk forward to clear the supports and proceed to perform your squats as usual. When finished you step back between the supports and lower the weight to them. You can assist yourself in taking the weights from supports or lowering them back with your hands against the legs. 

All systems of repetitions and sets may be used. Many fellows have found the 20 or 30 rep, weight gaining, puff-and-pant system very effective, while others have used many sets of 5 reps for power and bulk.

This Magic Circle has so many varied uses and applications, all so satisfactory and effective that you can well understand why we have chosen to call it the Magic Circle, tho it was originally known as the Douglass Harness, and Hise called it the Hula Hoop. 

We gave publicity to this in Iron Man in 1953 and again in 1954, but because of problems of construction and getting the correct dimensions, most fellows did not bother to build one. They are a little expensive to build too, but the cost is small when the satisfaction and results are considered. 

Our first one ran about $40 including the materials and some of the labor. We are now in the process of building ten of them and believe this will bring the cost to $35. We know many fellows will want one of these and if you'd like your name on one, rush us your reservation right away because they will not last too long. These Magic Circles must be made very strong and the measurements must be just right, hence the considerable expense involved. We will send these out $35 each F.O.B. Alliance, Nebraska. 

If you obtain one, give it a fair trial. Take your time. Do not try maximum poundages the first few workouts. Become acquainted with its use. You will find it quite different from squatting with a bar. Most people find it a very delightful method of doing this heavy exercise right from the first. Thus far we have found no one demanding padding on the shoulder straps, but if you have very tender shoulders, padding can be added. 

We believe, now that we have made the Magic Circle available already built, that it will become one of the most popular methods of squatting, and a must for serious bodybuilders and weight lifters. 

Incidentally, we have made up both a special square type as well as the round type, but most fellows prefer the round type tho there is little real difference in the feel and use. 

For new, undreamed of power and progress in the King of Exercises, graduate today to the MAGIC CIRCLE. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!