# a mugger lol(kefe)



## kenwood (Jul 21, 2006)

rofl lol


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## JordanMang (Jul 21, 2006)




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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

Wtf!


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## kenwood (Jul 21, 2006)

lol rofl


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Here are the other ones.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

I have one Huge head man...


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## kenwood (Jul 21, 2006)

lol rofl


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## DOMS (Jul 21, 2006)

maniclion said:
			
		

> Wtf!


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## JordanMang (Jul 21, 2006)

Please tell me those aren't fake wrestling championship belts?  That's so white-trash it hurts.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

They are real just the smallest size.


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## JordanMang (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> They are real just the smallest size.



Do you live in a trailer?


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

JordanMang said:
			
		

> Do you live in a trailer?


No son.


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## JordanMang (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> No son.




You're like 12, who the hell are you calling son?


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

JordanMang said:
			
		

> You're like 12, who the hell are you calling son?


Im calling my sons son,Jacob!


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## JordanMang (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> Im calling my sons son,Jacob!



I'm so confused.  Your white trash powers are destroying me.


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> No son.


Tuck that thumb in before I break it son.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)




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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE, who is Glen Jacobs?


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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

I am sure he belongs to the BYMWF (backyard munchin wrestling federation) LOL


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

gfjjf


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

maniclion said:
			
		

> KEFE, who is Glen Jacobs?


WTF?How did u find out about my hidden youtube and bb.com account?

It is Kane.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

gghfgfh


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

686878


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

5g5g


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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> gfjjf



You can add Terrets in there as well


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

are you ghey


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

:terrets:


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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

I think Bigdyl has been reincarnated


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

well


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

O' Holy ****


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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> juk



Now hes going for record of quickest growing thread


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Nuff Said?


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> WTF?How did u find out about my hidden youtube and bb.com account?
> 
> It is Kane.


I got my eye on you fella, you frighten me with your creepy ways, and garbage can attitude.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

maniclion said:
			
		

> I got my eye on you fella, you frighten me with your creepy ways, and garbage can attitude.


Thats a gold plated garbage can attitude son!


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Man


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> Spyerrrrrr


Min0 Lee says hello, (s)he misses you dearly.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

hello


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Min0


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

What


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Should


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

I


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Show


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

.


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

,


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

leweihyibgvi


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

talyors cum and go wash


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Legal Gear


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

wow garret it is up to 5 pages and when you went to workout it was on 1


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

W


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

I am legaly a Tender little Roid head!


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Wedesnday i set a new personal record by deadlifting 195lbs....


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Roids combined with home schooling will mess you up Garret!


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Woooooooooooooo!


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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

i think some one is in  need of some attention personally which he is not getting from at home...kids these days shesh


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Garret is working On His biceps and back right now


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

..............dgnxfb gvshzxbrscgf


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Workout !@Q#$w5y 5u


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

IP Address: 186.192.7.8


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Hack Hack Stickidie Stickidie Whack Hack!!


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

gchhjgfh


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Yes, I am a hacker.


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Hangover


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

H


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

A


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

N


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

G


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

O


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

V


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

E


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

R


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Pullover


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

P


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

U


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

L


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

er


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

eh


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

uh


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Erh


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Uk


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/showpost.php?p=1401611&postcount=28


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

wer


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)




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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

I am on the loose


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

&*(%%%%%%%%%


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

yep


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

yup


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

sho


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

ghfhjfg


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

ljkm n


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

gcnj


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

fgx


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

fgg


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

To avoid being HIT with a HAMMER, I feel compelled to make these two important disclaimers before I begin writing: 


As long as whatever form of training you're using doesn't hurt you, it's "good." Even if it keeps you from achieving your maximum potential, it's better than no training at all. So, on a scale of good, better, best, training according to the tenets of HIT theory is "good." 
As long as whatever type of training equipment you're using doesn't hurt you, it's "good." Even if it keeps you from achieving your maximum potential, it's better than no training equipment at all. So, on a scale of good, better, best, training with Hammer equipment is "good." 
Now, my tongue-in-cheek inclusion of the good folks at the Hammer equipment welding facility is merely that: Tongue-in-cheek. Actually, Hammer's inventor was none other than Arthur Jones. His son took over the company and made Hammer equipment a success story. So much so, in fact, that Life Fitness bought the company! The point is that Hammer, like Nautilus (Arthur's first foray into the wonderful world of weights), is frequently touted as the equipment of choice for the Hit Men. Me? I like BOTH companies' equipment no more or less than I like the rest of them. In fact, each has some unique merits, as do many others. 

The Seven Laws Of Weight Training From Most Sport Scientists' Perspectives. 


The Law of Individual Differences: We all have different abilities and weaknesses, and we all respond differently (to a degree) to any given system of training. These differences should be taken into consideration when designing your training program. 

The Overcompensation Principle: Mother Nature overcompensates for training stress by giving you bigger and stronger muscles. 

The Overload Principle: To make Mother Nature overcompensate, you must stress your muscles beyond what they're already used to. 

The SAID Principle: The acronym for "Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands." 

The Use/Disuse Principle: "Use it or lose it" means that your muscles hypertrophy with use and atrophy with disuse. 

The GAS Principle: The acronym for General Adaptation Syndrome, this law states that there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest following periods of high intensity training. 

The Specificity Principle: You'll get stronger at squats by doing squats as opposed to leg presses, and you'll get greater endurance for the marathon by running long distances than you will by (say) cycling long distances. 
Many of the current "systems" of training offer nothing new, and they often violate one or more of the seven "grand daddy" laws. If you are to understand my critique of HIT theory (below), you will have to be familiar with the seven laws. I recommend that you re-read the article on these laws if the synopsis above isn't enough. 

HIT History 

It all started back in the early seventies with Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame. Arthur's chief mission, of course, was to sell equipment. His marketing plan was brilliant. My interpretation of his plan was that in order to sell his equipment (which for the day was quite expensive) he had to create a religion for the masses. To create a religion he needed 1) churches, 2) disciples, 3) a bible, and 4) clergy. 


A scientist (Ellington Darden) inspired by God (Jones) wrote his bible, and (much later) a strength coach named "Moses" Matt Brzycki put the Ten Commandments from that bible into lay language. The Ten Commandments are presented below. 
Then he paid a bunch of guys to follow the gospel (their test results were later incorporated into the bible). Later, a chosen few of them became his disciples. 
The churches came next (Nautilus gyms sprang up all over the place... most are dead now, their respective flocks having flown the coop upon realizing that they were not making it to the promised land quickly enough -- in my humble opinion). 
His clergymen (gym owners) LOVED Arthur because he had really neat looking equipment and a way for them to rustle their clients in the front door and out the back real fast by convincing them that one set to failure was "the way." 
To support the notion that HIT is a Pagan religion, let me quote the word as it is written in the HIT page of the internet by one of his high priests, Matt Brzycki: 
"To some--including me--Jones was years ahead of his time and full of brilliant, revolutionary ideas about exercise; to others, he was the devil incarnate. One thing that everyone seems to agree upon was that he was abrasive, outspoken and brutally candid." 

Old timers like me recall that the most popular movies of the day were 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Time Machine. Arthur got the name "Nautilus" from one movie (his offset cam, copied from German physical therapy equipment of the mid 1800s, looked like a cross-sectioned conch shell), and the design from the other movie (his first machines were curiously reminiscent of the "Time Machine"). Yes. Arthur's business plan was brilliant, and it was carried out even moreso. It's no wonder that the religion has persisted to this day, so stauchly converted were his disciples. 

Meet Some Of The HIT Disciples 

There is a small (but utterly vocal) band of Arthur Jones disciples who have, since the early seventies, clung desperately to the oft discredited notion that one high intensity set to failure is all you need to achieve your maximum potential in growing stronger or bigger. In fact, the contemporary biblical interpretation (below) admits that one may profit from three sets, although one set is just as good as three. I say "desperately" for good reason. These guys (who like to call each other "HIT Jedi") invested their hearts and souls (and, quite often, funds from their respective organizations) in the superiority of both Jones' equipment and his theories on how best to use it. Others have been or are "sponsored" by Arthur. It almost seems as if they are afraid of losing face (if not their jobs) if they were to back away from the tenets of the HIT theory now, despite the huge volume of scientific studies discrediting many of its tenets. 

From a social-psychological view, it's utterly fascinating to watch the HIT men scramble. It brings to mind the great movie, "Lord of the Flies," in which a bunch of shipwrecked boys, left to their own devices, created a sort of Pagan society amongst themselves. Some of the Jedi who are more vocal than most, having written many passionate articles or books on their own cute little variants of the old Jones theory, bear mention. How they refer to each other as "Jedi" (which, I'm assured, means "priest") is yet more proof that HIT is a Pagan religion. I must say, however, I admire their zeal for lifting (albeit at a sub-par level)! 

Meaning to cast no dispersion on these well-meaning gentlemen by identifying them to the readership of this website, and acknowledging that not all those listed may care to admit to, and in fact vehemently deny their Pagan beliefs (until after the cock crows), here they are in alphabetical order (this is neither an exhaustive listing, nor is it mine -- it came from their web site): 


Matt Brzycki (strength coach at Princeton University); 
Ellington Darden, Ph.D. (Jones' longtime science advisor); 
Ken Leistner, D.C. (New York chiro who runs a gym there); 
Ken Mannie (strength coach at Michigan State); 
Stuart McRobert (publishes a "Hardgainer" newsletter); View His Articles 
Mike Mentzer (now deceased, former bodybuilder who fabricated his own "Heavy Duty" interpretation of Arthur's disproved tenets); 
Dan Riley (strength coach of the Washington Redskins); 
Rob Spector (keeper of a HIT web site); and 
Wayne Westcott, Ph.D. (a YMCA fitness director) 
Kim Wood (strength coach of the Cincinnati Bengals) 
The Jedi also claim as disciples, bodybuilding converts such as Dorian Yates, Ray Mentzer and Casey Viator. 
Just as Protestants split from Rome, some Jedi have gone their own way to create their own denominations of the HIT religion. The religious wrinkles provided by the various denominations after their split from Rome are quite interesting reading. I mentioned Mike Mentzer's "Heavy Duty" system of training in a previous article in this series -- really no different than HIT with a few funky (read: "mystical") wrinkles added. 

There's also the "Superslow" system created by the Protestant HIT Jedi Ken Hutchins, who actually provides a fitness trainer certification in his system (which can be yours for as little as $495.00). His peculiar wrinkle to HIT theory has to do with friction. Says he: 

"When you pull a trigger on a rifle or gun, you're supposed to pull with a slow, steady squeeze to the rear - if you jerk the trigger than the shot will be off. Same thing when lifting weights - each repetition should be a slow, steady squeeze of the muscle with no jerking... 

if an exercise has little friction, it's better to use a longer negative as you don't get the "partial respite" that you would from an exercise with lots of friction." 

Utter nonsense, of course... a topic for a future article, I'm afraid (space constraints, you know). Now I'd like to introduce you to the HIT commandments and some pointed comments on each relative to the seven grand daddy laws. 

The Ten HIT Commandments According To Jedi Brzycki 

1. Train With A High Level Of Intensity. 

"Intensity," according to HIT dogma, "relates to the degree of the "inroads"--or amount of fatigue--you've made into your muscle at any given instant. In the weight room, a high level of intensity is characterized by performing an exercise to the point of concentric muscular failure: when you've exhausted your muscles to the extent that you literally cannot raise the weight for any more repetitions. Failure to reach a desirable level of intensity--or muscular fatigue--will result in little or no gains in functional strength or muscular size. After reaching concentric muscular failure, you can increase the intensity even further by performing 3 to 5 additional post-fatigue repetitions. These post-fatigue reps may be either negatives or regressions and will allow you to overload your muscles in a safe, efficient manner." 

There is no question that going to failure can constitute a more "intense" workout. But, in the real world -- in the gym -- intensity is so much more than that. Webster defines intensity as having or showing the characteristic of strength, force, straining, or (relative to a bodybuilder's focal point) other aspects of his or her effort to a maximum degree. The words intense and intent both have the same Latin root, intendere "to stretch out." If one is intent on doing something, he does so, by definition, with strained or eager attention -- with concentration! That intensity of effort is largely a function of the mind is not this writer's opinion. It is true by definition as well as by practical usage of the word! "Intensity" is increased by: 


Amplification of mental effort -- getting "psyched" 
Approaching your training with a burning passion, as though it were your LIFE 
Adding reps 
Adding weight (this is the common definition of intensity) 
Decreasing rest between reps 
Decreasing rest between sets 
Increasing the number of exercises per body part 
Increasing the total number of exercises or body parts trained at one session 
Increasing the number of training sessions per day 
Increasing the speed of movement 
Increasing the amount of work done at the anaerobic threshold (maximum pain tolerance) 
Increasing the amount of eccentric work your muscles are required to perform. 
Perhaps most importantly, going to failure is NOT a prerequisite to adaptation! The SAID Principle is violated by the first commandment of HIT. Their idea is to go to failure all the time, but certain "specific" training objectives mitigate against it (e.g., speed training). And, the GAS Principle, which states that there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest following periods of high intensity training, is violated. These guys go to failure all the time! 

2. Attempt To Increase The Resistance Used Or The Repetitions Performed Every Workout. 

"...every time you work out you should attempt to increase either the weight you use or the repetitions you perform in relation to your previous workout. This can be viewed as a "double progressive" technique (resistance and repetitions). Challenging your muscles in this manner will force them to adapt to the imposed demands (or stress)." 

The SAID Principle is violated. Sometimes, lighter weights done rapidly is required. And sometimes heavier weights done for 3 reps is required. (If your training requires that you go to failure with a weight that's so heavy you can only do three reps, you are BEGGING for a MAJOR injury if that takes you to failure!) The GAS Principle is also violated. Alternating periods of high versus low intensity is a better way to go. If you wait until total recovery is accomplished in any given muscle, atrophy place. 

3. Perform 1 To 3 Sets Of Each Exercise. 

"...numerous research studies -- which I once again am probably viewed as dreaming up--have shown that there are no significant differences when performing either one, two or three sets of an exercise..." Yep! You're dreaming pal! Dr. Richard Berger (my mentor during my doctoral studies at Temple) years ago showed that there IS a significant improvement in gains with three sets as opposed to one. Other studies have shown the same results. Nowadays, many athletes (bodybuilders included) do as many as 10 or more sets. Even Arthur Jones --the original HIT man --showed that people with white, fast-twitch muscles require fewer reps, sets and workouts per week than people with predominantly red, slow-twitch muscles. 

Apparently, all HIT men are white muscle fiber guys? I think not! So, while none of the seven laws are violated here, some (especially the overload principle and the SAID principle) are not being applied to their maximum potential. 

4. Reach Concentric Muscular Failure Within A Prescribed Number Of Repetitions. 

"Repetition ranges differ from body part to body part and from coach to coach. In the course of training hundreds of collegiate athletes over the past eleven years, these are the ranges I usually assign: 15 to 20 (hip exercises), 10 to 15 (leg exercises) and 6 to 12 (upper body exercises). Other HIT strength coaches are pretty much in that neighborhood, with a few electing slightly lower ranges but not less than six." 

Woah! You guys should be blushing on this one! The SAID principle is quite specific in recognizing that not everyone is alike. Not everyone responds in the same way to any given rep/set scheme. Look again at my response to Commandment Three. 

5. Perform Each Repetition With Proper Technique. 

"A quality rep is performed by raising and lowering the weight in a deliberate, controlled manner. Lifting a weight in a rapid, explosive fashion is ill-advised for two reasons: (1) it exposes your muscles, joint structures and connective tissue to potentially dangerous forces which magnify the likelihood of an injury while strength training, and (2) it introduces momentum into the movement which makes the exercise less productive and less efficient. Lifting a weight in about 1 to 2 seconds will guarantee that you're exercising in a safe, efficient manner. It should take about 3 to 4 seconds to lower the weight back to the starting/stretched position." 

First, I grow weary of the HIT business of being "safe." Where in the book does it say that going slow and deliberate with a heavy weight is safer? I think otherwise. And, certainly, these slow, deliberate movements are not as effective as other methods in many instances. SOME reps are well performed in the manner described above. However, this commandment clearly disregards the importance of cheating movements, explosive lifting (e.g., the Olympic lifts), and many other techniques of lifting. 

Further, slow, deliberate movements are nowhere NEAR as effective for forcing an adaptive response in connective tissues as are more explosive (and yes, often "ballistic") movements. So much for their claim to "safety!" Deinhibition of the Golgi tendon organ's protective feedback loop can be moved back far more effectively with controlled ballistic movements than with slow, deliberate movements. Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Overcompensation, Specificity and SAID principles. 

6. Strength Train For No More Than One Hour Per Workout. 

"If you are training with a high level of intensity--and you should--you literally cannot exercise for a long period of time. ...Training with a minimal amount of recovery time between exercises will elicit a metabolic conditioning effect that cannot be approached by traditional multiple set programs. Don't ask me why cause I've been makin' all this stuff up as I go along." 

Ol' Jedi Brzycki continues to put his sandalled foot on top of his golden tongue. Here, I think (one can't really tell) he's claiming that doing one set of squats, then one set of benches, then one set of pulldowns, then one set of curls, and one set of 3, 4, 5 or so additional exercises, and you're outta the gym. C'mon! 

Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Overcompensation, Specificity and SAID principles. Re-read my response to Commandment Three. People are DIFFERENT! 

7. Emphasize The Major Muscle Groups. 

"The focal point for most of your exercises should be your major muscle groups (i.e. your hips, legs and upper torso)." Oh? Have we lost sight of training weaknesses first? Bodybuilders know this instinctively. Most athletes do as well. Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Specificity and SAID principles. 

8. Whenever Possible, Work Your Muscles From Largest To Smallest. 

"Exercise your hips first, then go to your legs (hams, quads and calves or dorsi flexors), upper torso (chest, upper back and shoulders), arms (biceps, triceps and forearms), abs and finally your low back." Duhhhhh! Am I missing something? In the Eighth Commandment, you told us NOT to focus on smaller muscles! In addition to violating one of your own commandments, this commandment is in violation of the Specificity and SAID principles. 

9. Strength Train 2 To 3 Times Per Week On Nonconsecutive Days. 

"...a period of about 48 to 72 hours is necessary for muscle tissue to recover sufficiently from a strength workout. A period of at least 48 hours is also required to replenish your depleted carbohydrate stores. ...Performing any more than three sessions a week can gradually become counterproductive due to a catabolic effect. This occurs when the demands you have placed on your muscles have exceeded you recovery ability. Recovery time is adequate if you continue making gains." Sometimes 48-72 hours is sufficient, and sometimes it's not. Depending upon the muscle involved it may be less or it may be more. Remember: 


Big muscles take longer to recover than smaller ones 
Fast twitch muscles (your "explosive" muscles) take longer to recover than slow twitch muscle fibers ("endurance" muscles); 
Guys recover faster than girls; 
You recover faster from slow movements than from fast movements; 
You recover faster from low intensity training than from high intensity training. 
The older you get, the longer it takes to recover 
By carbohydrate stores, do you mean glycogen? Not 48 hours...something closer to 2 or 3 hours! I, and every athlete I've ever trained, often trained twice a day! The Russian athletes do, the Bulgarian weightlifters train 3-6 times a day! And, even if there were (as Bryzcki put it) a "catabolic" effect, wouldn't that call for a "periodized approach to training? Grand daddy laws violated with this one are the SAID, GAS and Specificity Principles. 

10. Keep Accurate Records Of Your Performance. 

"Records are a log of what you've accomplished during each and every strength session. Record keeping can be an extremely valuable tool to monitor progress and make your workouts more meaningful. It can also be used to identify exercises in which a plateau has been reached." OK. I'll give the HIT men this one. 

On the other hand, HIT folk will have to use their logs to refer back more often than other (non-HIT) trainees. They're bound to be hitting plateaus a lot more than others. Jedi Bryzcki ended his "Sermon On The Web" with these words: 

"Don't be misled by the brevity or simplicity of a program that calls for one set of an exercise done with a high level of intensity. Strength Coach Ken Mannie has stated that HIT is "the most productive, most efficient and without a doubt, the most demanding form of strength training known to man [and woman]." Of course, I read that in Nautilus magazine. And Mannie was drunk at the time." 

Need I say more? 

Sidebar 

HIT Jedi Matt Brzycki posted these gems in the HIT Web Site: "...HIT received a lot of attention--and created quite a controversial maelstrom--in 1970 with the publication of numerous articles written by Nautilus founder Arthur Jones. Although Jones didn't invent HIT, there's no question that he certainly was the one who popularized it and formally suggested guidelines and principles for its use. 

"Jones has mellowed with age but I got some laughs a few months ago when I saw him insult a group of unsuspecting sportsmedicine people with his trademark brash comments and demeanor. Anyway . 

"...what was seen was rarely a pretty sight. In fact, it was kinda ugly. Rarely were more than two sets of an exercise performed--and never more than three. You really couldn't do much more anyway. The level of intensity suggested by Jones was performing each exercise to the point of muscular failure. 

"If you were too exhausted to crawl--which was sometimes the case--you were physically grabbed and dragged to the next exercise. Jones' opinion of an acceptable level of intensity might best be summed up with one of his many colorful quotes: "Have you ever vomited as a result of doing one set of [biceps] curls? If not, then you simply don't know what hard work is. Ahh, those were the days." 


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Are you frustrated with your current workout? Have you been at the same weight and same strength for months... or even years? This full guide will get you growing like crazy! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



By: Bodybuilding.com


Are you frustrated with your current workout? Have you been at the same weight and same strength for months... or even years? Are you tired of following "Ronnie Coleman's Super Freak Workout For Juiced-Up Psychos"? 

This article will show you what real natural bodybuilders do to gain mass in as short as time as possible? all without lifting weights more than 3 days per week. Let's get to the workout:  The Workout  

Note: Do a short warmup set before each exercise with approximately 50% of the weight you will use for the main working set. Do about 4 - 6 reps with this lighter weight, just enough to get warmed up. 


Squats 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Leg Extensions 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Leg Curls 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Dumbbell Pullovers 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Barbell Overhead Shoulder Press 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Seated Rows 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Bench Press 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Barbell Bicep Curls 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Tricep Extensions 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Weighted Pullups 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Weighted Dips 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Standing Calf Raises 1 X 8 - 12 reps 
Abs - 1 X 10 - 15 reps 
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of This Workout... 

The workout should last no longer than 45 minutes! Plan your rest between sets accordingly so that you finish in this time period. Studies have shown that after 47 ? minutes of intense weight training, your cortisol levels shoot up. This means that the longer you workout AFTER 47 minutes, the LESS results you will get and the more likely you will overtrain. So get in the gym, lift hard, stay focused, and get out. 

The most important thing is that you lift to absolute FAILURE! This is not an option. It is almost 100% necessary to have a workout partner. If you need to get 8 - 10 reps, choose a weight that allows you to get 8 - 10 reps? but not even ONE more. 

I am serious! 

Once you reach your last rep, you should not be physically able to do another one, no matter what. If Britney Spears promises to date you if you get one more, it wouldn't matter. You should NOT be able to do it. Only you can judge if you are truly putting all possible effort into each set. 

Unlike programs where you are doing 4 or 5 sets per exercise, you only have one chance to blast your muscles. Don't waste it! 

You will also notice that all the exercises are compound movements. We are NOT doing any isolation exercises. Let Richard Simmons do them. We want to get huge and strong and the only way to do it is by using these exercises. 

Perform each set with good form. Cheating will only hurt your gains. Do each rep slowly and do not use momentum. Each rep should use a full range of motion and take approximately 2 seconds on the way down and 2 seconds on the way up. Do not "jerk" the weight up. Slowly move it up and down. Use lighter weight if you must. This is VERY important to your gains so don't ignore this! 

Do not stop moving during any part of your set. Some people will go all the way down on squats, then come back up and lock their knees, rest for a second or two, then go back down. Do NOT do this or you will be making Baby Jesus cry. You should stay in constant motion without locking out on any exercise. Do not stop at the bottom of your bicep curls or any other exercise. Again: Keep moving for the whole set and do not lock out your arms or legs. 



Keep moving like it is one long SLOW rep instead of 10. Do not stop at the bottom or top of your movements. Wuss! 

 Schedule  
That's it. A full body workout that you will complete 2 1/2 or 3 days per week on one of the following schedules: 

3 Days A Week 


1 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1off, 1 on, 2 off. Usually people will do this by working out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the other days completely off from weight training. 
2 1/2 Days A Week 


Experienced lifters may benefit even MORE from taking more rest days. Have you ever noticed that after a two day rest period, your next workout is awesome? You feel good, your strength is up, and you have a great workout. Then, near the end of the week you feel tired and drained? Lifting on the following schedule allows you to get full recovery and have a record-breaking workout each time: 1 on, 2 off, repeat over and over again. 
 Progression - You Need A Log  
 You must lift heavier each workout. If you lift 100 pounds for 10 reps each workout for months, your body will have no reason to get bigger and stronger. You will not grow unless your weights are going up repeatedly. The only way to fully track this is to write down everything you do in a workout log. 

If last time you did 225 lbs for 10 reps on the bench press, you must go to at least 230 lbs for 8 reps on your next workout. If you do get 8 reps, then on your next workout you should get at least 9 reps with the same weight. Once you can get 10 reps, you must raise the weight again. Don't wuss out! Look at your log from your last workout, and beat it on every exercise. Even if you only get ? a rep more than before, you will be gaining. 

You can print out a free workout log by clicking here. You can also just use a small notebook. 

It is very important that you also track your bodyweight and measurements so you can see how much progress you have made. I recommend weighing yourself before each workout and measuring a few of your important bodyparts (like arms, thighs and waist) before you go to the gym. 

Cool! Click here to calculate your one rep max! 

 That's It? Why Does This Work?  

Yes, that's it! It may sound crazy to somebody who is used to doing 30 sets for biceps and working out 6 days per week. Even crazier is lifting 6 days per week and not growing! Stop thinking that more is better! If you are a natural bodybuilder, you will not have near the recovery of a steroid user. Somebody on steroids can lift 6 days per week without overtraining, but you can't. 

Many bodybuilders who are used to high volume training would laugh at a bodybuilder who does one set per exercise and only works out three days per week. I ask them how many times a week they work their biceps. 

Almost always, they say once per week on "Bicep Day". Once per week!? So they work their biceps, then they let them rest for 7 days in a row? After 1 or 2 days, their biceps are no longer sore... yet the wait another 5 or 6 days to work them again. Their biceps are slowly shrinking during this long rest period. 

In our workout you isolate each bodypart THREE times per week with a full, heavy set. You hit it on Monday, let it rest one day, hit it on Wednesday, let it rest, hit is on Friday and then give the poor muscle a two day break... before starting the cycle again. So we work our biceps (and all muscles) three full times per week which is 12 times per month. They work their biceps 12 times in 3 months! And they call us lazy... 

Why is this good for muscle building? Think about when you build a callous on your hand. If you were to rub your hand until is was cut and started bleeding, then wait a week, then do it again, you would simply have a scar. On the otherhand, if you were to rub it a little each day or every other day, it would slowly build up a resistance to the rubbing, thus forming a protective callous. This is the same idea with our workout. 

 Another interesting thing is that people who do 12 sets per bodypart usually do not go to full failure on each set. This would be almost impossible as it would nearly kill them! 

They will usually do their first few sets with ease because in the back of their mind they are saving their energy for the last few sets. Most of their sets are worthless since they are not going to failure. How often do you see somebody in your gym perform a full, balls to the wall set where they are almost about to die from the pain and effort. Not often. 

Usually these people are just going through the motion, getting a good "burn", while making a few grunts. Then they walk out feeling better than you because they did 12 sets for biceps and you only did one. Your muscles will only grow if they are forced too! Otherwise, we would all have huge legs just from walking around all day. 

Our workout LOOKS easy on paper, since you are only doing one set per exercise. Trust me, if you go to failure on each exercise, you will be more physically exhausted than ever before. Usually, a person works just one or two muscles groups. They walk out of the gym with burning biceps or triceps. "Oooohh... my biceps are tired! I am da man!" With our workout, your entire body is being worked. You will walk out with every muscle screaming at you. 

 Tips On Each Exercise  

Here are some tips for each exercise. 


Squats Since this is your first exercise, you may want to do 2 or 3 short and easy warm up sets to get ready. This will be your hardest exercise most likely, so we put it at the beginning so you can throw everything you can at it. Lifting to failure on squats means almost falling down on your last rep. Be sure to go all the way down and have a partner or rack there to help you if needed. 
Leg Extensions Use a full range of motion. Go all the way up and all the way down. 

Leg Curls Use a full range of motion and do not "jerk" the weight up. 

Dumbbell Pullovers Your first upper body exercise. Be sure to do a good warm up set so you do not injure yourself. Lift heavy and do not rest at the top of the movement. 

Barbell Overhead Shoulder Press Do these in front of your face, not behind the neck. You can injure your rotator cuff when doing them behind the neck. Go down until the bar is about at chin level, not lower. Slow, slow, slow reps! 

Seated Rows Keep your back straight up and down. Do not move far forward or lean far backwards. You want to be squeezing together your shoulder blades! 

Bench Press Slowly, go down and touch your chest around your nipple area. Do not use momentum to get the weight up. Use a spotter and get an extra rep with his help to really blast the muscle. 

Barbell Bicep Curls Do not sway! Keep your elbows at your side and do not move them. Squeeze your biceps upward. 

Tricep Extensions Keep your body straight up, do not lean over too much. 

Weighted Pullups If you can't do pull-ups, do pulldowns. Do these slowly and go all the way up and down. Use the wide-grip bent bar. 

Weighted Dips Strap on the weight! Keep your body straight up and down, do not lean over too much. You want to be working your triceps, not your lower chest. 

Standing Calf Raises Go all the way down and up. Don't use too heavy of a weight where you can only do partial reps. Feel the burn! 

Abs Choose a good exercise that uses some resistance. Don't work your abs on any off days. Abs are normal muscles just like your shoulders and chest! 

 Nutrition and Supplements  

 As you may have heard, nutrition accounts for at least 70% of your success. Try to build a brick house without bricks! It ain't happening. Your body can not build without building blocks like protein. 

Your body must also have a positive calorie balance so that your body is in weight gaining mode. The important thing is to be sure that you are getting enough calories and protein. If you aren't gaining, up your calories until you are. You should not be gaining fat, so cut your calories down if your bodyfat percentage starts to rise. There are many good articles on nutrition for mass gain here on Bodybuilding.com. 

For supplements, be sure you pick a good protein powder like Next Designer Whey or a weight gainer like Prolab N-Large 2. Use creatine, a multi-vitamin like Twinlab Daily One Caps, and an anti-oxidant like NOW Super Antioxidants. HMB may be a good idea too if you can afford it. Get detailed information on each product by clicking on it's name! 

 Cardio?  

It is recommended that you keep your cardio down while doing this workout program. This is a bulking workout to use when you want to gain muscle mass. The more calories and energy you put towards cardio or other types of exercise, the less ability your body will have to grow muscle. 

If you must do cardio, keep it to no more than 20 minutes at a time, three days per week. Save the cardio for your cutting cycle! 

 Conclusion  

Okay, your brain now has the knowledge it needs to turn your body into a muscular freak. You just have to get the motivation to actually do the program, follow it perfectly, take your supplements and eat right. 

Do you have what it takes? Are you going to have the body that other people are jealous of? Will you get stares from girls and guys everytime you walk into a room? Will you catch people staring at your biceps out of the corner of their eye? That is 100% up to you now. Try the program, follow it perfectly for at least 6 weeks and you will be on your way. 

For more information on getting and STAYING movtivated, read this awesome article which will give you some awesome ideas. After you read it, you will be ready to work out right now and never quit! It is that good. 

Bodybuilding.com


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Are you frustrated with your current workout? Have you been at the same weight and same strength for months... or even years? Are you tired of following "Ronnie Coleman's Super Freak Workout For Juiced-Up Psychos"? 

This article will show you what real natural bodybuilders do to gain mass in as short as time as possible? all without lifting weights more than 3 days per week. Let's get to the workout:  The Workout  

Note: Do a short warmup set before each exercise with approximately 50% of the weight you will use for the main working set. Do about 4 - 6 reps with this lighter weight, just enough to get warmed up. 


Squats 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Leg Extensions 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Leg Curls 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Dumbbell Pullovers 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Barbell Overhead Shoulder Press 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Seated Rows 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Bench Press 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Barbell Bicep Curls 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Tricep Extensions 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Weighted Pullups 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Weighted Dips 1 X 8 - 10 reps 
Standing Calf Raises 1 X 8 - 12 reps 
Abs - 1 X 10 - 15 reps 
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of This Workout... 

The workout should last no longer than 45 minutes! Plan your rest between sets accordingly so that you finish in this time period. Studies have shown that after 47 ? minutes of intense weight training, your cortisol levels shoot up. This means that the longer you workout AFTER 47 minutes, the LESS results you will get and the more likely you will overtrain. So get in the gym, lift hard, stay focused, and get out. 

The most important thing is that you lift to absolute FAILURE! This is not an option. It is almost 100% necessary to have a workout partner. If you need to get 8 - 10 reps, choose a weight that allows you to get 8 - 10 reps? but not even ONE more. 

I am serious! 

Once you reach your last rep, you should not be physically able to do another one, no matter what. If Britney Spears promises to date you if you get one more, it wouldn't matter. You should NOT be able to do it. Only you can judge if you are truly putting all possible effort into each set. 

Unlike programs where you are doing 4 or 5 sets per exercise, you only have one chance to blast your muscles. Don't waste it! 

You will also notice that all the exercises are compound movements. We are NOT doing any isolation exercises. Let Richard Simmons do them. We want to get huge and strong and the only way to do it is by using these exercises. 

Perform each set with good form. Cheating will only hurt your gains. Do each rep slowly and do not use momentum. Each rep should use a full range of motion and take approximately 2 seconds on the way down and 2 seconds on the way up. Do not "jerk" the weight up. Slowly move it up and down. Use lighter weight if you must. This is VERY important to your gains so don't ignore this! 

Do not stop moving during any part of your set. Some people will go all the way down on squats, then come back up and lock their knees, rest for a second or two, then go back down. Do NOT do this or you will be making Baby Jesus cry. You should stay in constant motion without locking out on any exercise. Do not stop at the bottom of your bicep curls or any other exercise. Again: Keep moving for the whole set and do not lock out your arms or legs. 



Keep moving like it is one long SLOW rep instead of 10. Do not stop at the bottom or top of your movements. Wuss! 

 Schedule  
That's it. A full body workout that you will complete 2 1/2 or 3 days per week on one of the following schedules: 

3 Days A Week 


1 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1off, 1 on, 2 off. Usually people will do this by working out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the other days completely off from weight training. 
2 1/2 Days A Week 


Experienced lifters may benefit even MORE from taking more rest days. Have you ever noticed that after a two day rest period, your next workout is awesome? You feel good, your strength is up, and you have a great workout. Then, near the end of the week you feel tired and drained? Lifting on the following schedule allows you to get full recovery and have a record-breaking workout each time: 1 on, 2 off, repeat over and over again. 
 Progression - You Need A Log  
 You must lift heavier each workout. If you lift 100 pounds for 10 reps each workout for months, your body will have no reason to get bigger and stronger. You will not grow unless your weights are going up repeatedly. The only way to fully track this is to write down everything you do in a workout log. 

If last time you did 225 lbs for 10 reps on the bench press, you must go to at least 230 lbs for 8 reps on your next workout. If you do get 8 reps, then on your next workout you should get at least 9 reps with the same weight. Once you can get 10 reps, you must raise the weight again. Don't wuss out! Look at your log from your last workout, and beat it on every exercise. Even if you only get ? a rep more than before, you will be gaining. 

You can print out a free workout log by clicking here. You can also just use a small notebook. 

It is very important that you also track your bodyweight and measurements so you can see how much progress you have made. I recommend weighing yourself before each workout and measuring a few of your important bodyparts (like arms, thighs and waist) before you go to the gym. 

Cool! Click here to calculate your one rep max! 

 That's It? Why Does This Work?  

Yes, that's it! It may sound crazy to somebody who is used to doing 30 sets for biceps and working out 6 days per week. Even crazier is lifting 6 days per week and not growing! Stop thinking that more is better! If you are a natural bodybuilder, you will not have near the recovery of a steroid user. Somebody on steroids can lift 6 days per week without overtraining, but you can't. 

Many bodybuilders who are used to high volume training would laugh at a bodybuilder who does one set per exercise and only works out three days per week. I ask them how many times a week they work their biceps. 

Almost always, they say once per week on "Bicep Day". Once per week!? So they work their biceps, then they let them rest for 7 days in a row? After 1 or 2 days, their biceps are no longer sore... yet the wait another 5 or 6 days to work them again. Their biceps are slowly shrinking during this long rest period. 

In our workout you isolate each bodypart THREE times per week with a full, heavy set. You hit it on Monday, let it rest one day, hit it on Wednesday, let it rest, hit is on Friday and then give the poor muscle a two day break... before starting the cycle again. So we work our biceps (and all muscles) three full times per week which is 12 times per month. They work their biceps 12 times in 3 months! And they call us lazy... 

Why is this good for muscle building? Think about when you build a callous on your hand. If you were to rub your hand until is was cut and started bleeding, then wait a week, then do it again, you would simply have a scar. On the otherhand, if you were to rub it a little each day or every other day, it would slowly build up a resistance to the rubbing, thus forming a protective callous. This is the same idea with our workout. 

 Another interesting thing is that people who do 12 sets per bodypart usually do not go to full failure on each set. This would be almost impossible as it would nearly kill them! 

They will usually do their first few sets with ease because in the back of their mind they are saving their energy for the last few sets. Most of their sets are worthless since they are not going to failure. How often do you see somebody in your gym perform a full, balls to the wall set where they are almost about to die from the pain and effort. Not often. 

Usually these people are just going through the motion, getting a good "burn", while making a few grunts. Then they walk out feeling better than you because they did 12 sets for biceps and you only did one. Your muscles will only grow if they are forced too! Otherwise, we would all have huge legs just from walking around all day. 

Our workout LOOKS easy on paper, since you are only doing one set per exercise. Trust me, if you go to failure on each exercise, you will be more physically exhausted than ever before. Usually, a person works just one or two muscles groups. They walk out of the gym with burning biceps or triceps. "Oooohh... my biceps are tired! I am da man!" With our workout, your entire body is being worked. You will walk out with every muscle screaming at you. 

 Tips On Each Exercise  

Here are some tips for each exercise. 


Squats Since this is your first exercise, you may want to do 2 or 3 short and easy warm up sets to get ready. This will be your hardest exercise most likely, so we put it at the beginning so you can throw everything you can at it. Lifting to failure on squats means almost falling down on your last rep. Be sure to go all the way down and have a partner or rack there to help you if needed. 
Leg Extensions Use a full range of motion. Go all the way up and all the way down. 

Leg Curls Use a full range of motion and do not "jerk" the weight up. 

Dumbbell Pullovers Your first upper body exercise. Be sure to do a good warm up set so you do not injure yourself. Lift heavy and do not rest at the top of the movement. 

Barbell Overhead Shoulder Press Do these in front of your face, not behind the neck. You can injure your rotator cuff when doing them behind the neck. Go down until the bar is about at chin level, not lower. Slow, slow, slow reps! 

Seated Rows Keep your back straight up and down. Do not move far forward or lean far backwards. You want to be squeezing together your shoulder blades! 

Bench Press Slowly, go down and touch your chest around your nipple area. Do not use momentum to get the weight up. Use a spotter and get an extra rep with his help to really blast the muscle. 

Barbell Bicep Curls Do not sway! Keep your elbows at your side and do not move them. Squeeze your biceps upward. 

Tricep Extensions Keep your body straight up, do not lean over too much. 

Weighted Pullups If you can't do pull-ups, do pulldowns. Do these slowly and go all the way up and down. Use the wide-grip bent bar. 

Weighted Dips Strap on the weight! Keep your body straight up and down, do not lean over too much. You want to be working your triceps, not your lower chest. 

Standing Calf Raises Go all the way down and up. Don't use too heavy of a weight where you can only do partial reps. Feel the burn! 

Abs Choose a good exercise that uses some resistance. Don't work your abs on any off days. Abs are normal muscles just like your shoulders and chest! 

 Nutrition and Supplements  

 As you may have heard, nutrition accounts for at least 70% of your success. Try to build a brick house without bricks! It ain't happening. Your body can not build without building blocks like protein. 

Your body must also have a positive calorie balance so that your body is in weight gaining mode. The important thing is to be sure that you are getting enough calories and protein. If you aren't gaining, up your calories until you are. You should not be gaining fat, so cut your calories down if your bodyfat percentage starts to rise. There are many good articles on nutrition for mass gain here on Bodybuilding.com. 

For supplements, be sure you pick a good protein powder like Next Designer Whey or a weight gainer like Prolab N-Large 2. Use creatine, a multi-vitamin like Twinlab Daily One Caps, and an anti-oxidant like NOW Super Antioxidants. HMB may be a good idea too if you can afford it. Get detailed information on each product by clicking on it's name! 

 Cardio?  

It is recommended that you keep your cardio down while doing this workout program. This is a bulking workout to use when you want to gain muscle mass. The more calories and energy you put towards cardio or other types of exercise, the less ability your body will have to grow muscle. 

If you must do cardio, keep it to no more than 20 minutes at a time, three days per week. Save the cardio for your cutting cycle! 

 Conclusion  

Okay, your brain now has the knowledge it needs to turn your body into a muscular freak. You just have to get the motivation to actually do the program, follow it perfectly, take your supplements and eat right. 

Do you have what it takes? Are you going to have the body that other people are jealous of? Will you get stares from girls and guys everytime you walk into a room? Will you catch people staring at your biceps out of the corner of their eye? That is 100% up to you now. Try the program, follow it perfectly for at least 6 weeks and you will be on your way. 

For more information on getting and STAYING movtivated, read this awesome article which will give you some awesome ideas. After you read it, you will be ready to work out right now and never quit! It is that good. 

Bodybuilding.com


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Visitor Reviews Of This Article! 
Read Visitor Reviews - Write Your Own Review

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H.I.T. The Hammer - Does HIT Work? 
Tons Of HIT Workouts!

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Learn More! 


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----------



## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Preamble (June 23, 2003) 

I had to laugh when I saw the very old article by Dr. Squat once again posted on Bodybuilding.com. I went to the message board and sure enough the bickering was once again in full motion. In this old article, Dr. Squat never did get his facts completely straight. 

These training wars were over as far as I am concerned a LONG time ago. Back years ago, I couldn't help but think that Dr. Squat somehow felt threatened by HIT. At the time, in my opinion he could not match the pen (who said the pen is mightier than the sword!?) of Matt Brzycki. Maybe that was it? Who knows. One thing I have learned in the last 10 years is that one MUST keep an open mind about training. Pretty much any progressive resistance "works" with progressive being the key word. If you can continue to add weight to the bar, use good form, recover from your workouts, and remain injury free, you'll get stronger -- and bigger. 

Too many people spend too much time arguing about what training protocol is "best" rather than actually training! This is not doubt due to the global communication network we all know and love called the Internet. The training wars are over. Or, they should be! We are all brothers and sisters in the Iron Game. The love of pumping iron, regardless of training protocol, is what it's all about about! What follows is the article that was written in response to Dr. Squat's article many years ago. Hopefully, with both articles you will get a chuckle and afterwards go to the gym and PUMP SOME IRON! 


Bill Piche
Cyberpump.com
NOTE: Dr. Squat's article is printed in gray. response is in normal font color. 


To avoid being HIT with a HAMMER, I feel compelled to make these two important disclaimers before I begin writing: 
As long as whatever form of training you're using doesn't hurt you, it's "good." Even if it keeps you from achieving your maximum potential, it's better than no training at all. So, on a scale of good, better, best, training according to the tenets of HIT theory is "good." 

Response: Problem. Explosive lifting has a massive possibility of hurting you. Higher than HIT. Beyond that, define "hurt." Could overtraining yourself to sickness be considered "hurt?" 


As long as whatever type of training equipment you're using doesn't hurt you, it's "good." Even if it keeps you from achieving your maximum potential, it's better than no training equipment at all. So, on a scale of good, better, best, training with Hammer equipment is "good." 
Response: Last time I was training on Hammer equipment, my biceps went "hey mister hammer!" Last time I trained with a lat pulldown bar, my triceps went "Is this Universal, or what?" A leg press is most likely a leg press. Your muscles can't tell one machine from another. Yes, free weights are different [three dimensions] but no, no equipment that offers your muscles the same movement is different from another one. 


Now, my tongue-in-cheek inclusion of the good folks at the Hammer equipment welding facility is merely that: Tongue-in-cheek. Actually, Hammer's inventor was none other than Arthur Jones. His son now runs the company. The point is that Hammer, like Nautilus (Arthur's first foray into the wonderful world of weights), is frequently touted as the equipment of choice for the Hit Men. Me? I like BOTH companies' equipment no less than I like the rest of them. In fact, each has some unique merits, as do many others. 
Response: Oh really? Brzycki's book A Practical Approach to Strength Training only shows free weights, nautilus, universal, and manual resistance. Where's the Hammer? 


Rather than elaborate on what I regard as "better" and "best" for each of you, I'd rather that you made up your own minds. All you must do to decide whether a program is appropriate, judge it against the seven laws of weight training from most sport scientists' perspectives. If you are to understand my critique of HIT theory (below), you will have to be familiar with the seven laws. Here they are in no particular order of importance: 
The Seven Laws Of Weight Training From Most Sport Scientists' Perspectives. 


The Law of Individual Differences: We all have different abilities and weaknesses, and we all respond differently (to a degree) to any given system of training. These differences should be taken into consideration when designing your training program. 

The Overcompensation Principle: Mother Nature overcompensates for training stress by giving you bigger and stronger muscles. 
The Overload Principle: To make Mother Nature overcompensate, you must stress your muscles beyond what they're already used to. 

Response: AHEM! Does "reaching failure" come to mind for anyone? 


The SAID Principle: The acronym for "Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands." 

The Use/Disuse Principle: "Use it or lose it" means that your muscles hypertrophy with use and atrophy with disuse. 

The GAS Principle: The acronym for General Adaptation Syndrome, this law states that there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest following periods of high intensity training. 
Response: Yep.. and that "low intensity or complete rest" can be just sitting around on off days. 


The Specificity Principle: You'll get stronger at squats by doing squats as opposed to leg presses, and you'll get greater endurance for the marathon by running long distances than you will by (say) cycling long distances. 
Response: HIT has no problems with this. Every one of these is followed by HIT principles. 

HIT History 


It all started back in the early seventies with Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame. Arthur's chief mission, of course, was to sell equipment. His marketing plan was brilliant. My interpretation of his plan was that in order to sell his equipment (which for the day was quite expensive) he had to create a religion for the masses. To create a religion he needed 1) churches, 2) disciples, 3) a bible, and 4) clergy. 
 A scientist (Ellington Darden) wrote his bible, and (much later) a strength coach named Matt Brzycki put the Ten Commandments from that bible into lay language. The Ten Commandments are presented below. Then he paid a bunch of guys to follow the gospel (their test results were later incorporated into the bible). Later, a chosen few of them became his disciples. 

The churches came next (Nautilus gyms sprang up all over the place... most are dead now, their respective flocks having flown the coop upon realizing that they were not making it to the promised land quickly enough -- in my humble opinion). 

His clergymen (gym owners) LOVED Arthur because he had really neat looking equipment and a way for them to rustle their clients in the front door and out the back real fast by convincing them that one set to failure was "the way." 

To support the notion that HIT is a Pagan religion, let me quote the word as it is written in the HIT page of the internet by one of his high priests, Matt Brzycki: "To some--including me--Jones was years ahead of his time and full of brilliant, revolutionary ideas about exercise; to others, he was the devil incarnate. One thing that everyone seems to agree upon was that he was abrasive, outspoken and brutally candid." 

Old timers like me recall that the most popular movies of the day were 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Time Machine. Arthur got the name "Nautilus" from one movie (his offset cam, copied from German physical therapy equipment of the mid 1800s, looked like a cross-sectioned conch shell), and the design from the other movie (his first machines were curiously reminiscent of the "Time Machine").

Response: What's that have to do with what Brzycki said? 


Yes. Arthur's business plan was brilliant, and it was carried out even moreso. It's no wonder that the religion has persisted to this day, so stauchly converted were his disciples.
Meet Some Of The HIT Disciples 


There is a small (but utterly vocal) band of Arthur Jones disciples who have, since the early seventies, clung desperately to the oft discredited notion that one high intensity set to failure is all you need to achieve your maximum potential in growing stronger or bigger. In fact, the contemporary biblical interpretation (below) admits that one may profit from three sets, although one set is just as good as three. I say "desperately" for good reason. 
These guys (who like to call each other "HIT Jedi") invested their hearts and souls (and, quite often, funds from their respective organizations) in the superiority of both Jones' equipment and his theories on how best to use it. Others have been or are "sponsored" by Arthur. It almost seems as if they are afraid of losing face (if not their jobs) if they were to back away from the tenets of the HIT theory now, despite the huge volume of scientific studies discrediting many of its tenets.

Response: And where is this "huge volume" of studies? 


From a social-psychological view, it's utterly fascinating to watch the HIT men scramble. It brings to mind the great movie, "Lord of the Flies," in which a bunch of shipwrecked boys, left to their own devices, created a sort of Pagan society amongst themselves. Some of the Jedi who are more vocal than most, having written many passionate articles or books on their own cute little variants of the old Jones theory, bear mention. How they refer to each other as "Jedi" (which, I'm assured, means "priest") is yet more proof that HIT is a Pagan religion. I must say, however, I admire their zeal for lifting!
Response: Ahhh, attack the person. Forget the scientific basis of HIT, let's make fun of these people for being Star Wars freaks, ha ha! Yes, please do compare us to the Lord of the Flies, we are a pagan society that follows HIT only to fulfill our own needs. Are you aware that your last, oh, 10 paragraphs only attacked the people behind HIT and not the actual scientific basis of it? 


Meaning to cast no aspersion on these well-meaning gentlemen by identifying them to the readership of this magazine, and acknowledging that not all those listed may care to admit to their Pagan beliefs, here they are in alphabetical order (this is neither an exhaustive listing, nor is it mine -- it came from their web site): 

Matt Brzycki (strength coach at Princeton University); 
Ellington Darden, Ph.D. (Jones' longtime science advisor); 
Ken Leistner, D.C. (New York chiro who runs a gym there); 
Ken Mannie (strength coach at Michigan State); 
Stuart McRobert (publishes a "Hardgainer" newsletter); View His Articles 
Mike Mentzer (now deceased, former bodybuilder who fabricated his own "Heavy Duty" interpretation of Arthur's disproved tenets); 
Dan Riley (strength coach of the Washington Redskins); 
Rob Spector (keeper of a HIT web site); and 
Wayne Westcott, Ph.D. (a YMCA fitness director) 
Kim Wood (strength coach of the Cincinnati Bengals) 
The Jedi also claim as disciples, bodybuilding converts such as Dorian Yates, Ray Mentzer and Casey Viator. 
Just as Protestants split from Rome, some Jedi have gone their own way to create their own denominations of the HIT religion. The religious wrinkles provided by the various denominations after their split from Rome are quite interesting reading. I mentioned Mike Mentzer's "Heavy Duty" system of training in last month's Part One of this series -- really no different than HIT with a few funky wrinkles added. 

There's also the "Superslow" system created by the Protestant HIT Jedi Ken Hutchins, who actually provides a fitness trainer certification in his system (which can be yours for as little as $495.00). His peculiar wrinkle to HIT theory has to do with friction. Says he: 

 "When you pull a trigger on a rifle or gun, you're supposed to pull with a slow, steady squeeze to the rear - if you jerk the trigger than the shot will be off. Same thing when lifting weights - each repetition should be a slow, steady squeeze of the muscle with no jerking. 

"...if an exercise has little friction, it's better to use a longer negative as you don't get the "partial respite" that you would from an exercise with lots of friction." 

Response: So? What's so wrong with what he said? Of course pulling a trigger and lifting weights aren't the same, it's supposed to serve as a metaphor. 


Now I'd like to introduce you to the HIT commandments and some pointed comments on each relative to the seven grand daddy laws. 
The Ten HIT Commandments According To Jedi Brzycki 


1. Train With A High Level Of Intensity. 
"Intensity," according to HIT dogma, "relates to the degree of the "inroads"--or amount of fatigue--you've made into your muscle at any given instant. In the weight room, a high level of intensity is characterized by performing an exercise to the point of concentric muscular failure: when you've exhausted your muscles to the extent that you literally cannot raise the weight for any more repetitions. Failure to reach a desirable level of intensity--or muscular fatigue--will result in little or no gains in functional strength or muscular size. After reaching concentric muscular failure, you can increase the intensity even further by performing 3 to 5 additional post-fatigue repetitions. These post-fatigue reps may be either negatives or regressions and will allow you to overload your muscles in a safe, efficient manner." 

There is no question that going to failure can constitute a more "intense" workout. But, in the real world -- in the gym -- intensity is so much more than that. Webster defines intensity as having or showing the characteristic of strength, force, straining, or (relative to a bodybuilder's focal point) other aspects of his or her effort to a maximum degree. The words intense and intent both have the same Latin root, intendere "to stretch out." If one is intent on doing something, he does so, by definition, with strained or eager attention -- with concentration! That intensity of effort is largely a function of the mind is not this writer's opinion. It is true by definition as well as by practical usage of the word! 

Response: Well obviously Webster knows everything about biomechanical use/growth. Webster certainly is an all-knowing being who cannot be wrong. Webster simply wrote the definition of the word, intensity is used by HITers because it best fits the technique. I saw no real comments in that paragraph, you simply said a bodybuilder can have "intensity" while training. Obviously. HITers talk about the intensity at the muscular level, not some bodybuilder jumping up and down with excitement about training. 


"Intensity" Is Increased By: 

Amplification of mental effort -- getting "psyched" 
Approaching your training with a burning passion, as though it were your LIFE 
Adding reps 
Adding weight (this is the common definition of intensity) 
Decreasing rest between reps 
Decreasing rest between sets 
Increasing the number of exercises per body part 
Increasing the total number of exercises or body parts trained at one session 
Increasing the number of training sessions per day 
Increasing the speed of movement 
Increasing the amount of work done at the anaerobic threshold (maximum pain tolerance) 
Increasing the amount of eccentric work your muscles are required to perform. 
Perhaps most importantly, going to failure is NOT a prerequisite to adaptation! The SAID Principle is violated by the first commandment of HIT. Their idea is to go to failure all the time, but certain "specific" training objectives mitigate against it (e.g., speed training). And, the GAS Principle, which states that there must be a period of low intensity training or complete rest following periods of high intensity training, is violated. These guys go to failure all the time! 

Response: Whoa whoa whoa... hold it there. I won't go into speed training, but HIT isn't supposed to cover speed training! It's just a weight lifting protocol. Of course you can't go to failure running, HIT never said you should. HIT said you should reach failure whenever you lift weights, not in every area of your life. 

As for the GAS Principle, you left out a major factor. That "period of low intensity" does not have to be during the workout! The "low-intensity" is when you are on your off days and are resting. The GAS principle is fulfilled whenever you end your workout and rest. Would you consider lying down after a workout a "period of low-intensity to complement high-intensity training?" Of course you would! 


2. Attempt To Increase The Resistance Used Or The Repetitions Performed Every Workout. 
"...every time you work out you should attempt to increase either the weight you use or the repetitions you perform in relation to your previous workout. This can be viewed as a "double progressive" technique (resistance and repetitions). Challenging your muscles in this manner will force them to adapt to the imposed demands (or stress)." 

The SAID Principle is violated. Sometimes, lighter weights done rapidly is required. And sometimes heavier weights done for 3 reps is required. (If your training requires that you go to failure with a weight that's so heavy you can only do three reps, you are BEGGING for a MAJOR injury if that takes you to failure!) The GAS Principle is also violated. Alternating periods of high versus low intensity is a better way to go. If you wait until total recovery is accomplished in any given muscle, atrophy place. 

Response: Why are lighter weights done rapidly required? Guess you forgot to answer that part. 

Wait... you're the one who just said to do 3 reps and then followed it with a sentence that said not to do 3 reps!??!?! Which should I do??? Average HIT says "8-12" or "15-20" on bigger muscle groups. 

"If you wait until total recovery.. atrophy will take place." Wait, so while a muscle is recovering it can atrophy? If that's so, you can't do anything about it... 


3. Perform 1 To 3 Sets Of Each Exercise. 
"...numerous research studies -- which I once again am probably viewed as dreaming up--have shown that there are no significant differences when performing either one, two or three sets of an exercise..." Yep! You're dreaming pal! Dr. Richard Berger (my mentor during my doctoral studies at Temple) years ago showed that there IS a significant improvement in gains with three sets as opposed to one. Other studies have shown the same results. Nowadays, many athletes (bodybuilders included) do as many as 10 or more sets. Even Arthur Jones --the original HIT man --showed that people with white, fast-twitch muscles require fewer reps, sets and workouts per week than people with predominantly red, slow-twitch muscles. 

Response: No, he's not. Numerous studies have shown that if you do the SAME training for 3 sets it's no better than if you did it for 1. You are right about one thing. Yes, more than 1 set is required if YOU DON'T REACH FAILURE ON THAT FIRST SET! If you don't reach failure then yes, you do need to make a better inroad and get a higher intensity with more sets. But why bother? Just do the one set to failure and you won't have to spend all that wasted time. As for "many athletes do as many as 10 sets"... So? Many people still believe that white men with brown eyes are superior to all other beings. Does that make them right? 


Apparently, all HIT men are white muscle fiber guys? I think not! So, while none of the seven laws are violated here, some (especially the overload principle and the SAID principle) are not being applied to their maximum potential. 
4. Reach Concentric Muscular Failure Within A Prescribed Number Of Repetitions. 

"Repetition ranges differ from body part to body part and from coach to coach. In the course of training hundreds of collegiate athletes over the past eleven years, these are the ranges I usually assign: 15 to 20 (hip exercises), 10 to 15 (leg exercises) and 6 to 12 (upper body exercises). Other HIT strength coaches are pretty much in that neighborhood, with a few electing slightly lower ranges but not less than six." 

Woah! You guys should be blushing on this one! The SAID principle is quite specific in recognizing that not everyone is alike. Not everyone responds in the same way to any given rep/set scheme. Look again at my response to Commandment Three. 

Response: No, but most people can do quite well with that. And if I believe there are many ways (many ways created by HIT people) that say how to figure out exactly how many reps you should do. I believe Mentzer wrote an article on this. 


5. Perform Each Repetition With Proper Technique. 
"A quality rep is performed by raising and lowering the weight in a deliberate, controlled manner. Lifting a weight in a rapid, explosive fashion is ill-advised for two reasons: (1) it exposes your muscles, joint structures and connective tissue to potentially dangerous forces which magnify the likelihood of an injury while strength training, and (2) it introduces momentum into the movement which makes the exercise less productive and less efficient. Lifting a weight in about 1 to 2 seconds will guarantee that you're exercising in a safe, efficient manner. It should take about 3 to 4 seconds to lower the weight back to the starting/stretched position." 

First, I grow weary of the HIT business of being "safe." Where in the book does it say that going slow and deliberate with a heavy weight is safer? I think otherwise. And, certainly, these slow, deliberate movements are not as effective as other methods in many instances. SOME reps are well performed in the manner described above. However, this commandment clearly disregards the importance of cheating movements, explosive lifting (e.g., the Olympic lifts), and many other techniques of lifting. 

Further, slow, deliberate movements are nowhere NEAR as effective for forcing an adaptive response in connective tissues as are more explosive (and yes, often "ballistic") movements. So much for their claim to "safety!" Deinhibition of the Golgi tendon organ's protective feedback loop can be moved back far more effectively with controlled ballistic movements than with slow, deliberate movements. Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Overcompensation, Specificity and SAID principles. 

Response: Where in the book? How about the part that says that if you apply a massive amount of force to a joint it can hurt it. How can you make this force higher? Speed up the weight. Then you not only have the force of the weight, you have the force of the weight plus all of its inertia! Ouch! 

Yep, it does disregards the importance of cheat movements... HITers don't like being injured. As for HIT not being as effective in forcing connective response... Reaching failure is as high as you can go. You can't get any higher except for negative failure, at which point you can only get higher by negative breakdowns. With the explosive lifting, yes, you can get a response with your tissues, but not without risk. Think of it this way. If you bashed your head every day with a shovel, you'd get a better chance of being able to withstand a bash to the head with a shovel, but every time you did it you'd be exposing yourself to danger! Why? 


6. Strength Train For No More Than One Hour Per Workout. 
"If you are training with a high level of intensity--and you should--you literally cannot exercise for a long period of time. ...Training with a minimal amount of recovery time between exercises will elicit a metabolic conditioning effect that cannot be approached by traditional multiple set programs. Don't ask me why cause I've been makin' all this stuff up as I go along." 

Ol' Jedi Brzycki continues to put his sandalled foot on top of his golden tongue. Here, I think (one can't really tell) he's claiming that doing one set of squats, then one set of benches, then one set of pulldowns, then one set of curls, and one set of 3, 4, 5 or so additional exercises, and you're outta the gym. C'mon! 

Response: C'mon? C'mon why? You can't just say something is wrong without backing your claims up... 


Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Overcompensation, Specificity and SAID principles. Re-read my response to Commandment Three. People are DIFFERENT! 
Response: People are different, but muscles are pretty close to the same. Yes, some people have more Type I fibers than Type II and so on, but muscles are really close to the same. And, how does it violate any of those principles? Again, claiming failure and not backing up claims. 


7. Emphasize The Major Muscle Groups. 
"The focal point for most of your exercises should be your major muscle groups (i.e. your hips, legs and upper torso)." Oh? Have we lost sight of training weaknesses first? Bodybuilders know this instinctively. Most athletes do as well. Clearly, this commandment is in violation of the Specificity and SAID principles. 

Response: You failed to reach the point this made. If you train weaknesses first, your bigger muscles will fail to reach proper intensity. If you train your forearms and not your chest, do you think your bench press will go flying? Do you think you'll gain much weight? The major groups do most of the work, and weight the most. If you want to increase your strength and weight, major is the way to go. But wait! We never said to not do the little muscles at all, we just said to emphasize the big ones. 


8. Whenever Possible, Work Your Muscles From Largest To Smallest. 
"Exercise your hips first, then go to your legs (hams, quads and calves or dorsi flexors), upper torso (chest, upper back and shoulders), arms (biceps, triceps and forearms), abs and finally your low back." Duhhhhh! Am I missing something? In the Eighth Commandment, you told us NOT to focus on smaller muscles! In addition to violating one of your own commandments, this commandment is in violation of the Specificity and SAID principles. 

Response: Right now, I am watching TV while typing on my computer. I am not "focusing" on the TV, but I can still watch it. "Focusing" on muscles and "not working them at all" are two different things. Again, you twisted words around that were just fine. Why should you work from big to small? OBVIOUS! How can you complete a bench press if your triceps are already wasted? How can you do squats if your low back is already gone? You need to think about the "weak link." 


9. Strength Train 2 To 3 Times Per Week On Nonconsecutive Days. 
"...a period of about 48 to 72 hours is necessary for muscle tissue to recover sufficiently from a strength workout. A period of at least 48 hours is also required to replenish your depleted carbohydrate stores. ...Performing any more than three sessions a week can gradually become counterproductive due to a catabolic effect. This occurs when the demands you have placed on your muscles have exceeded you recovery ability. Recovery time is adequate if you continue making gains." Sometimes 48-72 hours is sufficient, and sometimes it's not. Depending upon the muscle involved it may be less or it may be more. Remember: 


Big muscles take longer to recover than smaller ones 
Fast twitch muscles (your "explosive" muscles) take longer to recover than slow twitch muscle fibers ("endurance" muscles); 
Guys recover faster than girls; 
You recover faster from slow movements than from fast movements; 
You recover faster from low intensity training than from high intensity training. 
The older you get, the longer it takes to recover 
Response: Not all HITers believe in the 48 to 72 hours, and not all HITers work 2 to 3 days. Many HITers only train once a week. And, how can you talk about us not resting enough?? You recommend twice a day to many people! The main reason 48 to 72 was said was just to get people to slow down and not train every day. 


By carbohydrate stores, do you mean glycogen? Not 48 hours...something closer to 2 or 3 hours! 
Response: "A period of 48 hours is also required to replenish the depleted carbohydrate (or glycogen) stores (Pipes 1989). Reasurch by Piehl (1974) demostrated that almost 46 hours were needed to reach pre-exercise glycogen levels -despite a carbohydrate enriched diet and without physical activity for as long as possible." 

So did Pipes and Piehl lie to us? 


I, and every athlete I've ever trained, often trained twice a day! The Russian athletes do, the Bulgarian weightlifters train 3-6 times a day! And, even if there were (as Bryzcki put it) a "catabolic" effect, wouldn't that call for a "periodized approach to training? Grand daddy laws violated with this one are the SAID, GAS and Specificity Principles. 
Response: Ah, so that obviously means they're right. If I trained 4 times an hour, would that mean I was right? If there was a catabolic effect would that call for a periodized approach? Certainly if you trained twice a day! If you trained twice a day you would need light days and heavy days or you wouldn't be able to work out. Solution: Don't work out twice a day. Work out up to 3 days a week at high intensity. Then you don't have to bother with that ineffective heavy day and light day crap! 


10. Keep Accurate Records Of Your Performance. 
"Records are a log of what you've accomplished during each and every strength session. Record keeping can be an extremely valuable tool to monitor progress and make your workouts more meaningful. It can also be used to identify exercises in which a plateau has been reached." OK. I'll give the HIT men this one. 

On the other hand, HIT folk will have to use their logs to refer back more often than other (non-HIT) trainees. They're bound to be hitting plateaus a lot more than others. 

Response: Why will they hit plateaus? I can give you one answer, their training is more effective so they'll hit plateaus more often, because they are making better gains! 


Jedi Bryzcki ended his "Sermon On The Web" with these words: 
"Don't be misled by the brevity or simplicity of a program that calls for one set of an exercise done with a high level of intensity. Strength Coach Ken Mannie has stated that HIT is "the most productive, most efficient and without a doubt, the most demanding form of strength training known to man [and woman]." Of course, I read that in Nautilus magazine. And Mannie was drunk at the time." 

Response: Yes, certainly, let's just make fun of Mannie if we can't think of a real response. If you don't like this article, just say I was high or drunk or something if you can't think of a real answer. 


Need I say more? 
Response: Yes. On several occasions you simply wrote that this or that was "bad" without leaving your examples. 

Sidebar 



HIT Jedi Matt Brzycki posted these gems in the HIT Web Site: "...HIT received a lot of attention--and created quite a controversial maelstrom--in 1970 with the publication of numerous articles written by Nautilus founder Arthur Jones. Although Jones didn't invent HIT, there's no question that he certainly was the one who popularized it and formally suggested guidelines and principles for its use. 
"Jones has mellowed with age but I got some laughs a few months ago when I saw him insult a group of unsuspecting sportsmedicine people with his trademark brash comments and demeanor. Anyway . 

"...what was seen was rarely a pretty sight. In fact, it was kinda ugly. Rarely were more than two sets of an exercise performed--and never more than three. You really couldn't do much more anyway. The level of intensity suggested by Jones was performing each exercise to the point of muscular failure. 

"If you were too exhausted to crawl--which was sometimes the case--you were physically grabbed and dragged to the next exercise. Jones' opinion of an acceptable level of intensity might best be summed up with one of his many colorful quotes: "Have you ever vomited as a result of doing one set of [biceps] curls? If not, then you simply don't know what hard work is. Ahh, those were the days."

Response: Brzycki's a funny guy isn't he? But what's wrong with these "gems?" 

BTW. I have to say this, or people might assume it. No, I am not a god of HIT (or as Fred would put it, a "priest" of HIT). I do not speak for all HITers or all people in general. I just defend this pagan religion that I hold on to because I will lose money if I don't. Ha ha ha. 


Check Out This 3-Day HIT Workout Program!
Click here to view Dr. Squat's original article. 

Thanks, 


editor@cyberpump.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Anyone who follows HIT (High Intensity Training) knows the basic premise that we work under. Training for strength and mass should be "brief, infrequent and intense." But how do we define infrequent? How often can we work out and still get great gains? The answer lies in how you manipulate your routine so that you can be training very briefly, very intensely but yet still get into the gym 3-4 times a week without overtraining and burning out. 

A standard HIT training regimen involves working the entire body over one training session then taking several days off before hitting the entire body again at the next session. A routine might look something like the following: 

Sample HIT Routine 


Squat 
Pullovers 
Stiff legged deadlifts 
Shoulder Press 
Chins 
Bench Press 
Curls 
Pushdowns 
Crunches
Typically you would perform a routine like this on, say, Monday and then follow it up with the same routine on Thursday. Many trainees have also opted to change to a 2 day split program where by half the body is worked on Monday and then the other half on Thursday. This gives more recuperation time for each muscle group and allows for the elimination of some of the overlap involved with doing the whole body routine. This type of splitting is fine as long as the volume is kept very low, somewhere around 12-15 sets per workout or about 30 sets total for the week. This is definitely enough work IF you are taking each set to failure, a practice that true HIT devotees take very seriously indeed. 

With that in mind why is it that most HIT trainees assume that this is the only way to train? What stops them from further dividing their program? After pondering this thought for some time I decided that I had to try it out. In fact the new higher frequency routine was almost a necessity to me because of my schedule. Quite literally it became very difficult to find 45 minutes on any given day that would be un-interrupted and so I had to find a way of incorporating all of my training into a greater number of very brief workouts of 10-15 minutes or less throughout the week. 

With the above listed routine in mind I began tearing it down into several workouts of 2-3 exercises each. Since the volume would be very low I decided I could afford to pick all the best exercises and incorporate them all into the schedule while still making sure there was very little overlap between days of training. With that much in mind here's the routine that I began using: 

Monday: 


Deadlift 1 x 20 (rest pause style HEAVY) - View Exercise
Shrugs 1 x 10 - View Exercise
Chins 2 x 6-8 - View Exercise 
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday!

Tuesday: 


Bench Press 2 x 4-6 - View Exercise
Dumbell shoulder press 1 x 10 - View Exercise (Shown w/ machine)
Cable lateral raise 1 x 15 - View Exercise
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of Tuesday!

Wednesday: 


Squats 2 x 4-6 - View Exercise
Leg curls 1 x 15 - View Exercise
Calf raises 2 x 15 - View Exercise 
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of Wednesday!

Friday: 


Close Grip Bench lockouts 1 x 6-8 supersetted with - View Exercise
Pushdowns 1 x 10 - View Exercise
Seated barbell curls 1 x 10 - View Exercise 
Incline Dumbell curls 1 x 6-8 - View Exercise
Cable crunches 2 x 15 - View Exercise 
 Click Here For A Printable Log Of Friday!

That's the entire routine. Each day's training takes no more than 15 minutes IF you are training intensely. I could usually complete my workout in about 10 minutes. With this in mind I can honestly say there is not a single soul out there who can't manage to get the body that they crave. 

Obviously even on the most rigid of schedules there is a way to get in some kick ass training and build some solid muscle. Sometimes bodybuilding is about finding a routine that matches your lifestyle as much as it suits your goals. Massive muscles in 15 minutes a day and less than 20 sets per week who can argue with that? 

Keep life HEAVY! 


nutrichem@hotmail.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Let me introduce myself. I don't have any fancy titles to put by my name; I'm just a lifter just like you are. I have been training since 1975. I have done just about every training style that has came down from Mount Olympus. High intensity training, volume training, power lifting; I've tried them all. During this time, I've come to the conclusion all types of training have there good and bad points. If you limit your self to just one training style you may miss out on the benefits from the other training styles. As a matter of fact there are more than one way to achieve your goals. 

My experiences with high intensity training has been good. I first time I tried them was in 1985. I had been reading about this new style of training in Perry Raders Ironman for a couple of years. To be honest with you I was intrigued by the training 30-45 minutes every other day and got the same results from training everyday for an hour and a half.

The basic premise was hit your muscles extremely hard than allow time to rest. You could say it was the ultimate in shock training. I had a bit of bad luck that year; I blew a knee and had to have an ACL reconstructed. While I was in the hospital my wife brought me some reading material. At that time Ellington Darden books where everywhere. So I studied these books while I was in the hospital. I decided to give it a go when I was able to go back to the gym.

I went back to the gym in a cast, my wife went with and started training also. She did the same workout as I did just with higher reps. The results where excellent, we had to use the nautilus equipment because I could not balance myself on the free weight equipment. Eight weeks latter when the cast came off I had maxed out on the stacks on the compound chest and the compound shoulder machine.

The gym police caught me adding 45lb plates so needless to say I had to move back to free weights still stuck to the principles I had been using on the machines. My workout weight on the bench went from 245lbs for 6reps to 315lbs for 6reps at a bodyweight of 200lbs.we are talking about picture perfect reps with a pause at the bottom.

My wife's best lift was the squat at a bodyweight of 115lbs she did 20reps with 155lbs.These are the lifts we made the best gains on. All of our lifts jumped quit a bit. You owe it to yourself to at least give this type of training a try. It has worked on everybody that knows that has tried it and put 110% into it.

HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING 

This form of training is very time efficient. The whole concept of this training is to hit your muscles as hard as you can in a short period of time. So your rest time in-between sets is minimal plus you are taking every set to failure and past.

The basic principles of this is stimulate your muscles than allow enough time for growth using workloads 80%-100% of your 1RM some times you will go over this when using partials, negative only training, static contraction training. Needless to say this is very hard on your system. This is Shock Training taken to the max. 

Your basic principles used in this type of training are: 

OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE - This is used in all types of training programs you are trying to add either reps or weight every workout.

NEGATIVES - These are the down stroke of your exercise you are stronger in the phase of your rep than in the positive portion.

STATIC CONTRACTION - All this is holding a weight at lockout as long as you can you are even stronger in this part of your lift.

PRE-EXHAUST TRAINING - This is where you use an isolation exercise to fatigue the muscle than go directly to a compound exercise to exhaust it even further. The downside to this is you are not as strong on your compound exercises. A good example of this would be tricip extensions and the dips you do these two exercises back to back with no rest in-between. 

DOUBLE PRE-EXHAUST - This is one of my favorite high intensity training principles it is the same as above except you are doing 3 exercises in a triset.

COMPOUND + ISOLATION + COMPOUND - When you do it in this fashion you are fresh for your compound exercises.

BREAKDOWNS - Take a weight you can do for 5-6 reps take it to failure than reduce 20% and do more reps to failure.

BURNS or PARTIALS - You do these at the end of a set to keep the blood in your muscle longer. Your body doesn't know if you are doing full or partial reps it just knows you are still demanding it to fire more muscle fibers. 

NEGATIVES - This is lowering the weight most of the time this is done at the end of a set not all the time. 

PURE NEGATIVES - These are where you only do the negative portion of the rep and your partner's help you get it back to the lockout position. Your normal try should to take 10seconds in lowering the weight. 

 NEGATIVE EMPHASIS - You can only do these on certain exercise mostly with machines. You raise the weight with 2 limbs and lower it with one.

REST-PAUSE - Training there are two types of this training. 

PURE REST-PAUSE - Is where you take 90-95% of you 1RM and do singles with it resting 10 seconds in-between reps I like this style because every rep is a perfect rep when you get 6-8reps move the weight up.

MODIFIED REST-PAUSE - This what 20 rep squats and dead lifts are take a weight you can do10 reps with than take as many breathes in-between the reps as you need to complete 20reps.

Let us look how we would put all this together. Remember our workouts will be short and sweet. In my opinion you need to allow at least one day of rest in-between workouts. Five days between body parts. REMEMBER: THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS TRAINING PROGRAM. This is a very intense training program. Your rep cadence will be like this you will lower the weight in a four count [negative] you will pause the rep to prevent any momentum than you will explode into the bar driving the weight to lockout [positive] expect a reduction in poundage from doing the reps in an ultra-strict fashion. Then take your reps to failure than throw in some intensity tech's to take it past failure. Remember you are only doing 2-5 sets per body part and only once every 5 days so don't hold anything back. 

Week One 

Monday-Friday [chest-back-delts]

Benchpress [rest-pause] 5-8reps
Incline flys [6-9reps] + dips [5-8reps][Pre-exuast]
Chins [5-8reps] + pullovers [6-9reps] + pulldowns [5-8reps][double pre-exuast]
Seated press [5-8reps] + side laterals [7-10reps] + wide grip upright rows [5-8reps][double pre-exuast] 

Click Here For A Full Bench Press Video w/ Audio! (MPG, 37 sec, 3.95MB) 

Wednesday [legs-arms]

Squats 1x20 [modified rest pause]
Thigh extensions [7-10reps] + sissy squats [max reps][pre-exuast]
Leg curls 7-10reps [negative emphasis]
One leg DB calve raise 1x50reps [modified rest pause]
Closegrip bench [5-8reps] + lying tricip extensions [5-8reps] + negative only dips [4-7reps][double pre-exuast]
Preacher curls [5-8reps] + negative only chins [4-8reps][pre-exuast] 

Click Here For A Close-Grip Bench Video w/ Audio! (MPG, 31 sec, 2.91MB) 

Week Two

Monday-Friday [legs-arms]

The same workout from wednesday week one. 

Wednesday [chest-back-delts]

Same workout from monday and friday week one. 


Squats: The Right AND Wrong Way To Do It.
Windows Media 56k - Windows Media DSL - Internet Explorer Only. 
RealPlayer 56k - RealPlayer DSL - Must have RealPlayer. 

This workout is very intense I usually peak in 6-12 weeks, when you know you have peaked you can not add reps or weight for 2-3 workouts. Another little tidbit if you want variable resistance add chains to your barbell exercises I picked this little trick up from reading about the westside training style. You will have to experiment on which exercises you like to use it. 

Thanks, 


YogiBear11359@aol.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol), one of the worlds oldest, most widely used, drugs, has many effects on the body, some positive, but most negative. Historically, alcohol has been blamed for many of the worlds tragedies and problems, from the fall of the Roman Empire (What's Your Poison; 1997) (1) to the disbanding of many families. Ironically, it is made from relatively innocuous substances. 

Fermented grain, fruit juice and honey have been used to make alcohol for thousands of years. Alcohol's use spans nationalities and demographics as it serves to relax and provide a source of enjoyment. It has even been shown to have some salutary effects, such as a blood thinning action beneficial to the cardiovascular system, in addition to the aforementioned social and relaxation aspects. 

However, the doses required in these instances are very minimal (1-2 glasses in most cases), and anything beyond this more than outweighs any potential benefits. This is partly because alcohol is classed as a central nervous system depressant, causing the brain to relax and inhibitions to decrease. 

Ones rational thought, emotional status, judgement, speech and muscle coordination are adversely affected through alcohol consumption. In extreme cases it can cause coma and death. Alcohol is specifically detrimental to bodybuilders, or any athlete, in that it can interfere with recovery, protein synthesis, hydration, motivation, and nutrient intake. Its financial cost is a burden for anyone who buys it. 

A review of the research will show that alcohol is poisonous to every organ in the body and will adversely affect everyone who engages in its use to some Extent (1, 6, 7, 8). This article is not intended to dissuade people from using alcohol moderately, for recreational purposes, but will point out, from an athlete and a researchers point of view, its significant shortcomings. Cheers. 


Alcohol's Effects


 Ethyl alcohol is a very small molecule which is soluble in lipid and water solutions. It is metabolized primarily by the liver, where an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase breaks the alcohol down into acetaldehyde, which is further broken down into acetate. 

Acetate is metabolized into carbon dioxide and water, which is excreted. Alcohol is absorbed rapidly from the small intestine (80%) and stomach (20%), before any other nutrients are digested. 

These properties ensure that alcohol gets into the blood stream and crosses the blood-brain barrier easily. Hence alcohol's instantaneous effect on thought processes. In fact, alcohol has a number of detrimental effects on the brain two of which, central to the scope of this article, will be discussed first. 

Alcohol, once it has crossed the blood-brain barrier, will inebriate the cerebral cortex (the part of the brain responsible for executive functions such as rational thought) and work its way down to the limbic system. It won't however affect the limbic system. This turns out to be a problem because the limbic system, being the most primitive part of the brain, then takes over the role of rational thought. 

This is problematic because the limbic system is entirely emotional, and one then begins to think with their emotions rather than the rational area of their brain (the cerebral cortex). A surprisingly small amount of alcohol will have an instant effect on ones ability to control their emotions, and their judgement as a result. A comparatively large amount of alcohol and one might become violent or completely out of control in other respects. 

As mentioned, alcohol is also a depressant. It depressant effect results from increased transmission of the GABA systems (2). In other words, alcohol consumption creates a demand for more GABA. GABA is a neurotransmitter responsible for restricting, or depressing the excitability of our brain. Glutamate is the Neurotransmitter that has the opposite effect as it is responsible for brain excitability and can be increased through the intake of various stimulants. It now gets a bit complex. 

The post synaptic receptors (the receptors of one brain cell that receive a message from another brain cell) for GABA, GABA-A, then become stimulated and respond by hyperpolarising the cell membrane and reducing the chance of an action potential occurring. An action potential is an electrical charge propagated through a neuron which causes that neuron to become stimulated. It gets worse. 

Over time, if a sufficient amount of alcohol is consumed, the GABA receptors become accustomed to a certain amount of alcohol and more is required to get the same depressing and intoxicating effect. In short, tolerance occurs. With more and more alcohol the potential for the GABA receptor to function improperly increases. This may result in hyperexcitability causing, anxiety, tremors, disorientation, and hallucinations when one is not drinking. 

This is alcohol at its destructive extreme. 

In addition to alcohols destructive effects at the time of ingestion, it can also cause neural tissue death when its consumption is stopped. As explained, GABA (a inhibitory neurotransmitter) binds to its GABA-A receptor following alcohol intake. When this happens, a chloride channel is opened and extracellular chloride moves into a intracellular compartment on the receptor. The neuron is hyperpolarized as a result and excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) cannot occur, as mentioned. 

The main point here is that alcohol facilitates the ability of GABA to open chloride channels. With greater (chronic) use of alcohol the neuron may become entirely dependant on alcohol for its GABA function in the long term. However, at the time of chlorides uptake another process, this time involving the glutamine (excitatory neurotransmitter) receptors, causes further problems. 

The glutamate system is up-regulated with alcohol withdrawal and calcium-channel activity is stimulated. Calcium is released directly onto the post synaptic neuron (calcium influx) in large amounts and neural death occurs. This happens particularly after binge sessions that occur on a regular basis. 


Implications For Athletes


 Alcohol is particularly detrimental for athletes as it interferes with many of the processes so vital to success (3,5). Focus, performance, recovery and rebuilding are all affected. Given that alcohol's effects can linger on for days an athlete would be wise to refrain from its use when competing. 

Although alcohol is absorbed rapidly it is metabolized very slowly and its effects may still impact athletic performance up to 48 hours after the last drink. 

Assuming the athlete is performing within 48 hours of its consumption, as little as two to three standard drinks can directly: 


Decrease strength 

Impair reaction time 

Impair balance and eye/hand coordination 

Impair fine motor and gross motor coordination 

Increase fatigue: Liver function is significantly impacted following the ingestion of alcohol. Up to 48 hours after the last drink the liver may still be metabolizing alcohol at the expense of glycogen (metabolized carbohydrate). 
Given that glycogen is vital for most of the body's cellular functions, body fatigue, cognitive decline and loss of strength will result when it cannot be used efficiently. Reaction time, balance, coordination are also impacted by this process in addition to the direct aforementioned neurochemical effects alcohol has on the brain. 


Interfere with body temperature regulation 

Cause dehydration: Alcohol has an impact on kidney function, which interferes with the regulation of electrolytes and fluids in the body (7). Cellular waste removal and nutrient supply are the main functions of fluid and electrolytes, which are controlled through kidney function.
The kidneys filter large amounts of water from many parts of the body, including the brain, to break down alcohol. This causes dehydration and can cripple an athletes performance. 


Deplete aerobic capacity and negatively impact endurance for up to 48 hours after the last drink 

Impact cellular repair: Protein metabolism is negatively impacted when alcohol is in the system. This has obvious implications for muscle repair. 

Impacts the cardiovascular system: Alcohol consumption raises blood pressure and this can result in the heart having work harder to pump blood through the body (8). An abnormally fast heart beat (tachycardia) can also result from alcohol consumption. Further, alcohol increases the synthesis of cholesterol and this can increase the risk of coronary heart disease. 

Disrupt sleep: Alcohol significantly interferes with restful sleep (4). It can make falling to sleep easier to begin with due to its sedative effects but the quality of sleep (particularly rapid eye movement) will be disturbed. 

Cause vitamin and mineral depletion: Vitamins and minerals so necessary for our health have their absorption interfered with, while the body's own supply are slowly depleted, when alcohol is consumed. Even one or two drinks per day (supposedly the "recommended" amount) can have this effect. B vitamins, which have important enzymatic and metabolic functions are depleted extra rapidly (8).
This deleteriously effects the heart, liver, thyroid and kidneys. Vitamin A is also depleted and this interferes with the body's ability to fight disease. Vitamin C depletion makes one susceptible to anemia. Also, when alcohol is ingested the body excretes calcium at twice the normal rate, thus impacting on bone growth and wound healing. 


Cause cognitive impairment: cognitive impairment (disruption of thought processes and brain damage) occur through a number of mechanisms (6,7). Alcohol related sleep disruption contributes to the insufficient restoration of ones neural processes. The effects of GABA-A stimulation, as explained, have been shown to contribute to neural death. 
Lack of glycogen to the brain, as a result of alcohol metabolism, causes slow, disoriented, thinking. These are just some factors. There are many more. The implications of cognitive impairment are severe for athletes: loss of motivation, focus and desire in addition to lessened perspicacity and even neuromuscular response. 

The effects outlined here are just some of the more obvious ones. There are many others, and it would probably take a book to outline and explain them in sufficient detail. 


Conclusion


 Even though alcohol will greatly impact performance 25 to 48 hours after the last drink, it has longer lasting, more indirect, effects. The reduction in quality of training and sleep in the period after its consumption, may cause a reduction in performance over the days following this period. 

So it is probably best to stay away from alcohol completely when training and competing to win. Indeed, the only real way to avoid alcohol's effects is to refrain from its use completely. 

References 


What's Your Poison.(1997). [On line] http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/poison/alcohol/alcohol.htm 
Aguayo LG. Ethanol potentiates the GABAA activates Cl- currents in mouse hippocampal and cortical neurons. Eur J Pharmacol 1990;187:127-130. 
Bloomfield, J. Fricker, P.A. & Fitch, K.D.(1992). Textbook of Science and Medicine in Sport. Blackwell Scientific Publications: Australia. 
Walsh J K. Sedative effects of ethanol at night. Journal of Study on Alcohol, 1991, 6, pp. 597-600. 
Burke, L.(1992). The Complete Guide to Food for Sports Performance. Allen and Unwin: Australia. 
Dodes. L. M.(2002).The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors: Quill, USA. 
Hunt WA. Are binge drinkers more at risk of developing brain damage? Alcohol 1993;10:559-561. 
Science in Africa.(2004). Alcohol and the Inevitable Hangover From Over Consumption. [On line] http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2001/december/drinks.htm 

Be sure to also check out:
The S.A.I.S. Mass-Building Routine!

davidrobson19@hotmail.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

It's A Man's World


We are a world awash in pills, potions and lotions to improve male sexual performance. Several of the last decade's blockbuster pharmaceutical drugs have been erectogenic PDE-5 inhibitors like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. 


RELATED POLL 
Guys: Have You Ever Taken A Penis Pill? 

Yes. 
No.  




There is no shortage of clinical research on these and similar drugs and in our last installment, we took a look at what supplements might play a role in enhancing male sexual performance. 



PREVIOUS INSTALLMENT 
 Supplementing Your Sex Life! 
The topic of male sexual health is bigger than ever. Find out what supplements you can take to improve your sex life!
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



This is only half of the equation though. If you are the neanderthalithic sort, perhaps you don't care about anything other than your sildenafil engorged self in the bedroom. If that is the case, you can stop reading now. 



 What Is Sildenafil?
Sildenafil citrate, sold under the name Viagra, is a drug used to treat male erectile dysfunction (impotence), developed by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.   




If your approach to sex is a little more enlightened and you understand that the whole game is a lot more fun if both teams are enjoying themselves or even if you are simply shrewd enough to understand that satisfied customers are repeat customers, read on. 


Female Sexual Enhancement


Unfortunately, the whole concept of female sexual enhancement is still in its infancy. For much of recorded history, scant attention has been paid to how much women were enjoying sex and what, if anything, could be done to improve things. 

While it seems like every substance from tuna fish to motor oil has been evaluated for male erectogenic activity, there has been little published on what substances improve things for women. 

Although the medical community is now catching on and studies are starting to appear, the body of research is still pretty lean. This leaves us little to go on in the search for effective supplements. 

Fortunately, in many important aspects, the female physiological response to sexual stimulus is not altogether dissimilar from that of the male. To illustrate, a little nether-region anatomy refresher may be in order. 

 Anatomy Review: 


Female external genital anatomy includes the clitoris, the small erectile organ located just above the vaginal opening, and the labia or vaginal lips. The vaginal opening, with its abundance of nerves can also be included. The clitoris is highly reminiscent of the male penis. 


 Click Here To Enlarge. 
Female "Nether-Region."
The extremely sensitive head of the clitoris is normally covered by a small hood of skin very similar to the uncircumcised penis and, just like its larger male counterpart, the clitoris becomes engorged with blood during sexual arousal. 

Interestingly, the clitoris is the only human organ that appears to have no function other than to provide sexual pleasure. 

FORUM THREADS 

G-SPOT DISCUSIONS 
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In addition to the clitoris, the external genitalia also include the labia major (outer lips) and labia minor (inner lips) running up and down either side of the vagina that also contain some erectile tissue. 

Although not technically external, just inside the vagina behind the clitoris is the famous Grafenburg or G-spot, also comprised of erectile tissue and highly enervated. 

As we can see, much of the external female sexual anatomy is composed of erectile tissue not unlike the corpus cavernosum of the male penis. 

It would seem reasonable; therefore, that some of the same chemicals that enhance the male erection might also prove beneficial for women.

 Chemical Enhancement: 


Arginase inhibitors like norvaline and PDE-5 inhibitors like sildenafil and Epimedium extract are all likely to enhance female genital engorgement and therefore sensitivity to stimulation. 


 Click Here To Enlarge. 
Arginase Inhibitors:
Female Genital Engorgers.
The few published studies on the subject do seem to support the hypothesis that some of the same substances that improve male erectile response do indeed generally improve female sexual satisfaction. 

Studies using sildenafil, and a commercial arginine-based sexual enhancer, for example, both revealed improved sexual response in women over placebo. 1,2 

As with males, female sexual satisfaction also seems positively influenced by manipulation of the brain's dopamine system. Apomorphine, a dopamine agonist marketed as Uprima for male erectile dysfunction, also improves female sexual satisfaction. 3 

It's certainly possible, therefore, that the extract of Mucuna pruriens which contains high levels of L-dopa may work in a similar manner. As we saw earlier, l-dopa is a powerful chemical with some unpleasant side effects and should be used with caution. 


 L-Dopa:
An amino acid that is the metabolic precursor of dopamine. Dopamine is commonly associated with the 'pleasure system' of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate us to do, or continue doing, certain activities. 
Certainly dopamine is released (particularly in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and striatum) by naturally rewarding experiences such as food, sex, use of certain drugs and neutral stimuli that become associated with them. 




In light of the fact that many of the same substances that enhance male sexual response also seem to work in women, it is particularly interesting that one of the more effective pro-sexual supplements for women may be ephedrine. In men, ephedrine has a well-deserved reputation as a sexual inhibitor and can even cause temporary impotence. 



 Editor's Note:
The Chinese have been using ephedra for more than 5,000 years to treat the afflictions of the lungs. The main active chemical component of ephedra is ephedrine, a beta-adrenergic agonist (increases heart rate and body temperature.) Ephedra Was Banned On April 12th, 2004.   




In women however, ephedrine's androgenic agonist activity appears to potently facilitate arousal and has even been tried with some success as a solution to SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. 4,5 



 Click Here To Enlarge. 
Help Fascilitate Arousal.
Although it has an impressive record of safety and has been used in herbal and contemporary medicine for many years, ephedrine is also not without side effects and some people are particularly sensitive to its stimulant effects. 

Given the mechanism of action, it is possible that other less stimulating androgenic agonists like pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine may have a similar effect, but this remains to be tested. 

A synergistic effect might be obtainable with a combination of yohimbine and ephedrine. In addition to its own demonstrated pro-sexual effects, on paper, yohimbine should inhibit negative feedback mechanisms and potentiate the effects of ephedrine. 



 Click Here To Enlarge. 
Pro-Sexual Effects.
Like ephedrine, yohimbine is generally safe but does have its own set of undesirable side effects, especially in sensitive individuals. 


 To View Top Selling Yohimbine Products Click Here.
Beyond the difference in the reaction to ephedrine, there are other differences in the sexual response of men and women that we might exploit.

 The Female Orgasm: 


In men, orgasm is closely tied to ejaculation. For most men, the two are inseparable and the inevitable response to physical stimulation of the penis. 
The female orgasm is less predictable and appears more closely tied to psychological state. 


RELATED POLL 
Multiple Orgasms In Women: Fact Or Fiction? 

Fact - We're Going All Night Long Baby! 
Fiction - She's Faking.  




Some recent findings reported in the mainstream media indicate that during orgasm, the portions of the woman's brain linked to feelings of fear and anxiety are temporarily disabled while these areas remain active in men. 

This lead the researchers to conclude that orgasm would be all but impossible if a woman were anxious or fearful despite adequate physical stimulation.6 

Supplements that have an anxyolitic effect like high-dose niacinamide or phenibut may help facilitate things if stress or anxiety levels are high. Vitamin C may also be useful in this regard. 


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In two recent controlled studies, high-dose (3g time-release formulation) ascorbic acid not only reduced both the objective and subjective responses to stress but also improved mood and increased intercourse frequency in both males and females. 7,8 

 DHEA: 


While it appears that some level of the "male" hormone testosterone is required for female sexual health, the prohormone DHEA has shown mixed results in terms of improving female sexual response. 
Women with low androgen levels are likely to suffer from lack of libido, and may benefit from DHEA, although acute supplementation has only been shown to consistently improve sexual response in postmenopausal women. 

A similar dose (300mg) did not measurably improve the sexual response of women who had not yet reached menopause. 9,10,11 Anecdotal evidence indicates that long-term DHEA supplementation at lower doses may provide some pro-sexual and other benefits but this has yet to be corroborated by research. 


 To View The Lowest Priced DHEA Products Click Here.

Only A Matter Of Time


Given the potential size of the market, it is highly likely that American pharmaceutical companies will drive new research in the area of female sexual enhancement and this research will no doubt provide us with more promising substances in the future. 



 Click Here To Enlarge. 
The Future is Looking Promising.
In the meantime, using what we know now, it would appear that the most promising routes for supplementing her sex life are enhancing genital blood flow, reducing anxiety and stress and activation of the androgenic system through stimulants like ephedrine. 

This article appears courtesy of www.mindandmuscle.net. 

References 

Laan E, van Lunsen RH, Everaerd W, Riley A, Scott E, Boolell M. The enhancement of vaginal vasocongestion by sildenafil in healthy premenopausal women. J Womens Health Gend Based Med. 2002 May;11(4):357-65. 
Ito TY, Trant AS, Polan ML. A double-blind placebo-controlled study of ArginMax, a nutritional supplement for enhancement of female sexual function. J Sex Marital Ther. 2001 Oct-Dec;27(5):541-9. 
Caruso S, Agnello C, Intelisano G, Farina M, Di Mari L, Cianci A. Placebo-controlled study on efficacy and safety of daily apomorphine SL intake in premenopausal women affected by hypoactive sexual desire disorder and sexual arousal disorder. Urology. 2004 May;63(5):955-9. 
Meston CM. A randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study of ephedrine for SSRI-induced female sexual dysfunction J Sex Marital Ther. 2004 Mar-Apr;30(2):57-68. 
Meston CM, Heiman JR. Ephedrine-activated physiological sexual arousal in women. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998 Jul;55(7):652-6. 
CNN Online, Health, 20 June 2005 
Brody S, Preut R, Schommer K, Schurmeyer TH. A randomized controlled trial of high dose ascorbic acid for reduction of blood pressure, cortisol, and subjective responses to psychological stress. J Sex Marital Ther. 2002;28 Suppl 1:165-73. 
Brody S. High-dose ascorbic acid increases intercourse frequency and improves mood: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Biol Psychiatry. 2002 Aug 15;52(4):371-4. 
Munarriz R, Talakoub L, Flaherty E, Gioia M, Hoag L, Kim NN, Traish A, Goldstein I, Guay A, Spark R. Androgen replacement therapy with dehydroepiandrosterone for androgen insufficiency and female sexual dysfunction: androgen and questionnaire results. J Sex Marital Ther. 2002;28 Suppl 1:165-73. 
Hackbert L, Heiman JR. Acute dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) effects on sexual arousal in postmenopausal women. J Womens Health Gend Based Med. 2002 Mar;11(2):155-62. 
Meston CM, Heiman JR. Acute dehydroepiandrosterone effects on sexual arousal in premenopausal women. J Sex Marital Ther. 2002 Jan-Feb;28(1):53-60.
Benson


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Pondering: Earlier This Week...


I'm about to leave for the gym. It's a sunny fall day, Saturday - one you might call perfect; low '70s, light breeze and no humidity. There are things I could do other than work out with the weights within the gym walls -- more appealing and exciting, perhaps -- yet to the gym I am bound.

Why? What is the draw, the attraction, the force that persuades or, more rather, compels me to attend the movement of heavy metal through a series of laborious sets and repetitions? A mystery.

I know what the motivations are for me; I can guess what they are for you, and only suspect they in their variations might coincide along the way. For myself, the workouts have to be done, come rain or shine.


 To View More Motivation Articles, Click Here. 

The value of yesterday's workout and other days gone by depends on today's; the workout of tomorrow and the days to follow are founded on the ones before them -- in particular, the one upon which I am about to embark.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 101 Ways To Motivate Yourself. 
Learning what uniquely motivates you is what will make you successful in your weight loss or weight gain journey. Here are 101 strategies that I have seriously used in my years in training. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




Time


No single training session is more important or less important than the other; they are equally important. They are intertwined, interwoven and interdependent, like words in the sentence of a complete and undefiled thought, a truth. 

We say, "If I don't work out today, I'll work out tomorrow." But what do we say tomorrow if we don't work out tomorrow, "I'll work out next time?" And so the conversation goes until it fades into guilt or a forgotten subject...

I'm training this afternoon because it promises a good challenge, joy, exhilaration, reinforcement, order, stress relief, camaraderie, and inner conversation that links me securely and properly with the days ahead.

I need to express myself physically that I might be healthy and whole. Daily activity and busy-ness fall short of this role and certainly do not provide sufficient exercise; they only accentuate the need for it.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 60+ Hours A Week: Keep Your Priorities Straight! 
The demands of modern living force all of us to make choices. With that being said I would like to share my list of priorities and important items for staying healthy. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




Live To Lift Another Day


This day is not just another day. What day in your life is "just another day?" Today is a miracle, one surprise after another, sometimes shouting, often whispering of the hope of more to come. The man or woman who thinks tritely of his or her life will endure a trite existence. This day, today, is the most important day!

Exactly your point, you say, why waste it or use it up in the gym under the iron? I say, so the sun will shine tomorrow and the next day and the next... in your heart, from your soul and upon your strong back.

As there are the moments, minutes and hours before the gym and its industry, there are the corresponding times after. Who among us is not disheveled and misshapen when we miss a scheduled workout?

We outlive the discomfort, we rationalize our choice to forego exercise, we defend our lame excuses -- after all, we are a free and unfettered people, not chained to the conventions of absolute discipline, or more appropriately, boring habit; we could use the rest and fun and, really, we do have forever -- but our once-enthusiastic plans, the proper self-image we fashioned, the promises and commitments we made to ourselves to develop ourselves are weakened.

 Where we might dread the resistance the weights present and anticipate with shortness of breath a run on the endless, timeless treadmill and long for a stretch on the couch with the remote at our command, we are able to reprogram our minds with thoughts of purpose and fulfillment and development and accomplishment.

Don't weaken under the weight of your own flesh and bones that beg for your attention. You're not lazy or lost or dismal; it'll take more than a few poor choices and rationalizations to bury yourself in that infertile ground!


Build Now!


You're building a palace for tomorrow, rooms for the future, and the work is evident in the structure always. The sketches are in your imagination and alter with time and living day to day. The foundation is sound and development is taking place regularly beneath the floorboards and walls. Wiring and pipes and reinforcements and security systems cannot be seen, yet your mighty hands install them.

It might require effort of mind and will, but think of the good of the pushing and pulling, filling the lungs with oxygen and the muscles with blood; the goodness of the warmth of energy that spreads through the body and the moisture of resolute toil worn like a shield.

Sometimes bombers take the train ... keeps things in perspective!
Oh, the thrill of a workout completed or the unbearable woe of yet another put aside! It's getting late and the last train for Paradise is idling at the station, waiting for all to board. I hate to keep the train and its spirited passengers waiting.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Believe In Yourself & You Will Reach Your Goals! 
Everybody has the ability to believe in him or herself and achieve incredible things in life. Learn how to believe in yourself to obtain your goals! 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




Gravity Lifts Me Up, Higher N' Higher


The mystery that drew me to the gym, the indescribable urge I could no more contain than flying outhouses, pig pens, chicken coops, and moonshine distilleries in an Arkansas tornado, materialized in a series of slow-moving challenges between a barbell nailed to the gym floor and me.

I hadn't noted that the gravity in the vicinity of the lifting platform registered in the red zone late Saturday afternoon. I loaded on the plates and proceeded to execute deadlifts, or more accurately, as I recall, it was the other way around; they executed me - 6 sets x 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 reps.

 I started with the bar and a plate and a half, or 185 lbs, for 12 reps. With each successive set, I added 50 pounds till the last set of 405 lbs for 2. I don't know what's more hysterical, the high reps or the heavy weight.

Sufficiently warmed up, I continued my mirthful routine with of wide-grip bent-over barbell rows supersetted with mid-weight, stiff-arm pullovers using the Odis thick-bar.


 What Does Supersetted Mean?
A superset is the alternating back and forth between two (or more) exercises until the prescribed number of sets is complete, usually with no rest between exercises. There are various types of supersets, however.
Find more definitions in our glossary.




No rush at this point, as I met up with Bill Keyes, the famous good-natured Large Man (a.k.a. Big Fellow, Sir Huge, Mountain), who regularly moderates the IOL discussion group and passes out strength advice to the hardy.

Between sets we discussed iron bending and metal moving and agreed, since he was visiting from out-of-town and we rarely see each other, heavy-duty monster conversation was permissible.


Be Careful
Not Designed For Tykes

Back to business: My stance is narrow. I bend low and grab the bar three inches from the collars and pull it high to the upper pec. The pull focuses on muscle-action -- contraction and extension -- depending less on thrust and the physics of momentum to move the weight.

Great for upper back width, thickness, and power and contributes to the strength of the lower back, quads, and hamstrings. A comprehensive move, the rows add to the body's overall muscle growth.

The pullovers tug on those lats while allowing you to lie down on a bench, oxygenize, stretch and stare at the ceiling between the tough sets.

 Press on and don't look back. Bill threw my battered body over his shoulder and retreated to the juice bar for a Bomber Blend shake to ensure his muscles would grow to outrageous proportions during his long drive home -- waste not, time or muscle-making efficiency.

On the way, he dumped me off at the cable-crossover where I knocked off the popular pec-defining exercise; nice tie-in to the muscle-action of the pullover. This burning, yet non-consuming exercise was completed in swift, meticulous form to achieve maximum pump and efficiency.

What's this? I stood upright and rolled my shoulders back and noticed there was something missing below the scapula and along the lower sweep of the lats. Using my built-in MPS (Muscle Positioning System), I determined one-arm rows blended with rounded-back dips would harmonize the un-sung regions and complete my composition for the day.

The biceps and triceps didn't go home this hungry Saturday without drawing blood, either. The whole greedy lot got in on the act. Did I mention I started with crunches and hanging leg-raises? Yesiree.

Now maybe you'll recall the secret appeal that makes life without the weights regrettable. How quickly we forget.

Better check your fuel, ammo, parachute, helmet, socks, underwear... Bombers are forever.

Good Luck,


ldraper@davedraper.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

This pro-qualifying show for the figure has women from across the country flocking to Chicago this weekend. Several women will step on stage in hopes of being the next IFBB Pro. Many of the men will be testing themselves on the national stage as well. 

Promoter Pam Betz reports that there are close to 200 women and 100 men competing in the various divisions. It will be interesting to see how many fitness competitors take the stage, lately there has been a decline in the number of fitness competitors. I know there are a number of very talented ladies who can turn pro in fitness. Last year a number of women competing in Jr Nationals went on to turn pro. 

Along with a number of competitors I'm told ticket sales are on a roll, exhibitor space is sold out and Art Atwood looks big. Props to Optimum Nutrition for sponsoring the big fella to strut his stuff at the night show. 

First Up - the ladies of "Fabulous Female Friday" 

Prejudging begins at 6pm on Friday night. 


 Jameela Klaimy




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Denver, CO
How Many Years Training: 


Less than one
How Many National Shows: 


This is my first
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To get the experience of being on a National stage and seeing what the judges have to say about my physique.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I've done everything I can to the best of my ability so I feel pretty good.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Chicago style pizza!
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Carla Sanchez
Sponsored by: 


JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.
Web site: 


www.performanceready.com

 Jacqui Blazier




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Denver, Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


3
How Many National Shows: 


This will be numero uno!
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To present my best physique ever, have fun and enjoy the experience.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I am feeling great! I will definitely be the most mentally and physically prepared that I have ever been. Bring it on!
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Soft Batch Chocolate chip cookies, then some yummy Chicago pizza!
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


IFBB Pro Carla Sanchez. I am a member of the Performance Ready Fitness and Figure Team here in Denver.
Sponsored by: 


JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.
Web site / email: 


www.jacquifit.com

 Jessica Booth




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Littleton, Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


I've been competing for a year, and doing gymnastics for 12 years.
How Many National Shows: 


One; I competed at Collegiate Figure Nationals in 2004 in Pittsburg.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


I would like to have fun at this show, begin to gain some national exposure, and hopefully place well in the process. I think this is going to be a great show full of amazing women and I am greatful to be able to gain experience competing at a show of this caliber.
How do you feel going into this show? 


I feel really good, I have been training hard and dieting even harder!! I have made a lot of improvements to my fitness routine by increasing the strength moves, and the skills. I've also put a lot of work into my physique, I am hoping to go into this show even tighter and more muscular then in the past.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Pizza, we're in Chicago after all!! Then some yogurt covered pretzels.
Are you working with a trainer, if so who? 


I have been training with IFBB Fitness Pro Carla Sanchez, and I have been a member of the Performance Ready Team for just over a year now.
Sponsored by: 


JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.
Web Site/Email: 


www.performanceready.com

 Jessica Rohm




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Phillipsburg, NJ
How Many Years Training: 


3
How Many National Shows: 


0
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To have a strong showing and hopefully place in the top 3 in fitness.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel pretty confident, ready to get on stage and give it all I have.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Anything sweet, chocolatey or fatty!
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Elena Seiple

 Anna Laratta




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Greenwood Village, CO
How Many Years Training: 


2 years
How Many National Shows: 


Jr Nationals in Chicago will be my 1st.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To do the very best that I can and to build on the national level experience I will receive.
How do you feel going into the show? 


Very excited! I've worked very hard for this show and I'm ready for showtime! 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Due to a photo shoot immediately following the show, I'll need to stick to my diet. After that? Probably my Mama's homemade Lasagna and bread. Eating healthy has actually become a lifestyle for me. As my trainer say's, "There's no off season!"


  How I Get Ready For A Photo Shoot! 
Find out down to the very last detail on exactly how I train, eat, do cardio, supplementation, and final polishing tactics to get ready for a photo shoot. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 





Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


IFBB Fitness Pro - Carla Sanchez
Sponsored by: 


JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.

 Stacey Kisting




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Finishing up last few months of Chiropractic College in Davenport, IA
How Many Years Training: 


3 years competitively, 10 years total.
How Many National Shows: 


This will be my 2nd national level show but first time doing The Jr. Nationals.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


I would like to be a bit fuller than my last show, especially in the shoulders.
How do you feel going into the show? 


It's an emotional roller coaster. Depends on the day! I am going in knowing that I did the best that I could with what I had. 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Pizza and Chocolate! I can't wait to hit the Gino's East and The Cheesecake Factory that weekend. Sunday for breakfast is The West Egg Cafe', best breakfast in Chicago.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


I am currently working alone.
Web site: 


www.staceykisting.com

 Jeanette Freed




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Brooklyn, NY
How Many Years Training: 


3 years
How Many National Shows: 


I did all the Nationals in 2004 and JR. USA's in 2005
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Come in the best I can, enjoy the competition and Chicago, and get some rest.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel confident. I have stayed focused with my training and dieting. Now it's time to have fun and show off the results. 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


I'm gonna have to try some of that Chi-town pizza I keep hearing so much about. I'm having a bit of hard time believing that it's better than NY pizza but I think I'm up for the taste test.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Yes, I have been blessed to train with John Scoma for a little over 2 years now. John pushes, motivates and I have to say that I am in awe of many of his accomplishments as a trainer. I believe God works through us as vessels in order to help others. 
One of his clients lost close to 180 pounds and I heard him say, "John, you saved my life. I got chills especially because I saw the whole transformation happen right before my eyes in a matter of six months with nothing more than hard work, discipline, and faith. Now that's what I call having purpose. John all I really want to say is thank you and you are definitely the "make it happen" kind of guy. 

Sponsored by: 


Dolphin Fitness
Web site: 


www.jeanettefreed.com

 Alexandra Galvez




 Click To Enlarge. 
Live In: 


San Jose, CA
How Many Years Training: 


8 years
How Many National Shows: 


First National Show
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


My objective as it is for every show is to come to the show in better condition than the last and to come to the show and win
. 
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel great and ready to present a well balance package.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


I maintain a health diet all year around so I will probably stick with my basic Chicken or Steak and perhaps something sweet. 
Are you working with a trainer? 


I've been working with Kevin Benson. He trains most local bay area competitors with diet and training. I also have to give my boyfriend Robert Dalecio credit for his support and training during this prep.

 Tamee Marie




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Omaha, Nebraska
How Many Years Training: 


5 years
How Many National Shows: 


This is my first.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Make the evening show.
How do you feel going into the show? 


Small, I wish I had more size, but I'm proud of how much I've put on in the last six months. I just feel like it's not enough... we'll see.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Tuff choice, everything sounds so good.... probably something containing chocolate.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Not really, I just research and read alot to help me out. I work out with another figure competitor as well as my husband. They seem to give me some pretty honest opinions.
Sponsored by: 


No one... yet.
Web site: 


TameeMarie.com 

 Amy Peters




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Lewisville, TX
How Many Years Training: 


10 yrs
How Many National Shows: 


4
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Top 5 Finish
How do you feel going into the show? 


I am very excited about this show. I feel confidant in that I am bringing a new overall package to the Jr National Figure stage.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Pizza and Cheesecake
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


I do my own diet and training, but I have been working with Jeff Dwelle on my posing and quarter turns.
Sponsored by: 


Crystal Corner-Competitive Edge Competition Suits
Web site / email: 


www.amypeters.net

 Erinn Tilley




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Lincoln, Nebraska
How Many Years Training: 


7
How Many National Shows: 


0
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


I'm training to win the whole damn thing, realistically the top 15 in my height class is a goal, but at risk of sounding cheesy, I just have to say knowing I gave my all on the journey there in the preparation, just being there and looking the best I know is possible for me and knowing I never cheated on diet or training, I've reached that goal.
How do you feel going into the show? 


invigorated, nervous, pumped, strung out, excited!
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Hello, Cheesecake!
Are You Worinking With A Trainer: 


I train by myself and with my headphones! Yeah, my trainers are Korn, Tool, NIN, and Manson!
Sponsored By: 


Myself! And someday I wish METRX because I'm a huge believer in their products and have faithfully used them since starting 7 years ago, except when they tried to change their extreme chocolate protein powder which was all wrong, but luckily they switched back to their original perfect chocolate formula!

 Brandy Newman




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Denver, CO
How Many Years Training: 


7
How Many National Shows: 


This will be my first National Show! 
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Top 5 
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel confident and excited. My goal is to have fun, show off all of my hard work, and present an overall package to the judges.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Hopefully, Chicago pizza!! But, I have been craving filet mignon, sushi, crunchy peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, fruit... who knows, whatever I can get! I'll even take the left overs from all the bodybuilders.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Yes, my trainer is Fitness Pro, Carla Sanchez with the Performance Ready Team.
Sponsors: 


Thank you!
Personal Sponsors: 


The Good Skin Institute of Denver, Pampered Passions, and Odyssey Capital Corporation. 
www.goodskininstitute.com and www.odysseytrading.com 

Team Sponsors: 


JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.
Web site: 


www.brandynewman.com - Coming Soon!
www.performanceready.com 

 Valarie Brown-Stephens




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Georgia
How Many Years Training: 


7
How Many National Shows: 


16
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To crack the Top 5 in the Short Class.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I'm not as nervous like I was when I competed at my first National Show in Charleston, S.C. (Jr. USA's '05'). I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a great experience.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Apple Pie A-la-mode
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Yes, Christina Gram and Jodi Jones
Sponsored by: 


New Hope Counseling & Athena's Health Center
Web site / email: 


www.YoValFit.com

 Carla Rae Weimer




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


I live in Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


This is my second year training.
How Many National Shows: 


Last year I competed at USA's and Colligate Nationals.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


My goals are to look my best and have a great time!
How do you feel going in to the show: 


I feel great and I am very excited to compete!
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Candy and the famous Chicago pizza!
Are you working with a trainer: 


I am apart the Carla Sanchez Performance Ready Team. Carla is my coach and I would not be where I am today without her! Thank you to all my teammates and coach for all the support! I love you all!
Sponsored by: 


I would like to thank our team sponsors; JavaFit, ISatori, Izba Spa, Tan the Moon, Christine Marsh Designs and The Point Athletic Club.
Website/Email: 


www.performanceready.com

 Judy Warren




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Denver, Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


Seriously training for over 1 yr., working out has been a part of my life for 15 years.
How Many National Shows: 


This is my first.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Be in the best shape possible, not to show my nervousness on stage, and have fun.
How do you feel going into the show: 


Very excited and a little nervous for my first national show.
First thing you will eat after show: 


Trail mix with lots of chocolate! I love the sweet and salty taste.
Are you working with a Trainer and if so, who? 


Yes, Carla Sanchez. I am on the Performance Ready Team.
Sponsored by: 


JavaFit, The Point Athletic Club, Tan the Moon, Meridian Physical Therapy, Fitness Together-Evergreen, Belmar Pharmacy, Melina Bandemer, Aesthetician, Izba Spa, Christine Marsh Designs, iSatori, Dr. Rival,.
Website: www.Judywarren.com 


 Felicia Bruno




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Weatherford, Texas
How Many Years Training: 


About 9 years
How Many National Shows: 


Chicago will be my first national and I have only competed in 3 shows total
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To win and become an IFBB Pro.
How do you feel going into the show? 


Excited and in the best shape of any competition. 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Cheesecake and pizza 
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


Yes, Micah Hooker, who owns Ultimate Physique in Fort Worth, Texas
Sponsored by: 


My Husband

 Alexis Ellis




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Alta Loma, CA
How Many Years Training: 


5 Years
How Many National Shows: 


3 National Shows.
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Place better than I did at the figure nationals.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel extremely confident with the new package I am bringing to the stage. It is better shaped and even more symmetrical.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Piece of dark chocolate
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


David Ellis
Sponsored by: 


Gourmet Fitness Food www.gourmetfitnessfood.com
Web site: 


www.alexisellis.com

 Bridgette Rhea




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Thornton, Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


2 years training
How Many National Shows: 


This will be my first Jr. National Show
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel pretty confident going into this show
First thing you will eat after the show: 


The first thing I will eat after the show is a piece of Chocolate cake & Ice Cream
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


My Trainer is Liane Seiwald
Sponsored by: 


I don't currently have a sponsor.

 Molly Thompson




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Madison, Wis.
How Many Years Training: 


4 
How Many National Shows: 


This is the second one. 
2003 NPC Grand Prix, Rockford, Illinois


2nd Place Figure Tall 
3rd Place Womens Novice Bodybuilding 
2003 NPC Natural Mid-States Muscle Classic XVII, Rockford, Illinois


2nd Place Womens Middleweight Open 
2004 NPC Grand Prix, Rockford, Illinois


3rd Place Figure Tall 
2nd Place Womens Novice Bodybuilding 
2004 NPC Wisconsin Championships, Waunakee


1st Place Tall and Overall Figure Winner 
2nd Place Womens Middleweight 
2004 NPC Junior Nationals, Chicago


Figure - Class C, 16th 
2005 NPC Grand Prix, Rockford, Illinois


2nd Place Figure Tall 
2005 NPC Wis. Bodybuilding Championships


1st Place Womens Bodybuilding Middleweight

Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


I hope to be in top 15 this time.
How do you feel going into the show? 


I am super excited! I have had a good time competing in two regional shows so far this year, so I feel warmed up and ready to go for this! I can't wait.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


My fiance (I just got engaged last weekend!) and I are going to go to Al's Pizza, which is right there near the Hyatt. We went there last year and it was so good -- and I don't even like pizza, really. We have not really celebrated our engagement yet (because of my diet)... so I guess we will finally celebrate it by pigging out over pizza after the show. How romantic, huh? Haha.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


No, I don't have my own trainer ATM. However, I am a personal trainer and group exercise instructor, so I have a good base of knowledge.
Sponsors: 


N/A.
Web site: 


FitMolly.com

The Men!



 Jim Seratt




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Houston, Texas
How Many Years Training: 


9
How Many National Shows: 


Jr. Nationals will be my first!
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


Top 5 in weight class
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel really good. I did a National Qualifier last weekend and looked my all-time best. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve to come in even better next weekend in Chicago.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Bacon Cheeseburger and a Dr. Pepper!
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


My entire last year and a half (both off-season and contest prep) was designed by my good friend, training partner and National Level Super-Heavyweight Competitor, Jason Bard of Beyond Results Personal Training in Houston, Texas.

 David Pulcinella




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Newark, Delaware
How Many Years Training: 


20
How Many National Shows: 


5
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


top 5
How do you feel going into the show? 


I've nailed my conditioning and I am bigger than ever.
First thing you will eat after the show: 


pizza
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


I do all my own nutrition and training. I actually do this for a living for others as well.
Sponsored by: 


Body visions fitness center
Web site / email: 


www.nutrifitweightmanagementsystems.com

 Mace Oropeza




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Wheeling, IL
How do you feel going into the show? 


I feel pretty good but a little exhausted, and exited. I also have a little bit of a hard time making my weight class. I'm in the best contest shape ever. I feel blessed to have a national level close by so I don't have to travel.
How Many Years Training: 


I've been training for 7 years.
How Many National Shows: 


This will be my third national level contest. I placed 5th at the 2003 npc jr. nationals as a bantam weight. I also competed in this show last year. 
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


My goal is to have fun, stay relaxed, look the best I've ever looked and place in the top 5 as a bantam weight or lightweight. 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


The first thing I'll eat is pizza.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


I do not work with a trainer or nutritionist right now. 

 Justin Harris




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Clinton Township, Michigan
How Many Years Training: 


10
How Many National Shows: 


This is my first national level competition. 
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


To show up in proper condition
How do you feel going into the show? 


So far, I'm happy with how my prep has come together. 
First thing you will eat after the show: 


Something loaded with fat and salt.
Are you working with a trainer - if so who? 


I work with myself, through www.troponinnutrition.com
Web site / email: 


www.troponinnutrition.com

 Aaron Rhea




 Click To Enlarge.
Live In: 


Thornton, Colorado
How Many Years Training: 


10 years training
How Many National Shows: 


1 National Show
Goals For Jr. Nationals: 


After coming in 15th place for my first Jr. National Show, my goal is to win my class and the overall.
How do you feel going into the show?


I feel good going into the show; this is the best that I have ever looked.
First thing you will eat after the show:


The first thing I will eat after the show is: Pizza and Twizzlers
Are you working with a trainer - if so who?


My Trainer is Liane Seiwald
Sponsored by: 


Fire and Ice

Look Out Chicago!


If this preview of just a handful of competitors is any indication of what's in store this weekend - look out Chicago - plenty of men and women are bringing it! Other competitors to keep an eye out for are Phillip Heath the genetic freak from Denver, Colorado. 



 Click To Enlarge.
This will be Phil's first national show. In female bodybuilding a few heads will turn with the blonde bombshell, Melissa Dettwiller. 


  An Interview With Buff Doll Melissa Dettwiller. 
Here is an interview with a great women, who, with the help of a great body, will try to get back a good name for female bodybuilders.
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




In Figure it's anyone's guess who will come out on top. Last year it was Abby Duncan who followed up her IRONMAN win with the Jr Nationals victory. Will Alexis Ellis be able to do the same thing year? 

 2004 NPC Junior Nationals 

For more information on the show visit:
http://www.npcjrnationals.com 

If you are planning on competing at USAs or Team Universe and would like to be included in the preview articles for those shows, please email me at info@liftstudios.com 

Good luck everyone and say hello if you see me in Chicago.
Peace



isaac@liftstudios.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Society puts such an importance on being fit and looking good it can be a little overwhelming. When you actually achieve that "look" you will do anything to hang on to it. Well, when the time comes when you start thinking that a family would be nice you also have to come to grips with the fact that your beautiful flat stomach will be a thing of the past, at least for a while. 

I know that pregnancy is a beautiful thing and a growing stomach is something that is both beautiful and worthy of showing off but getting to that point is the hard part. I am now going through this process. I am 4 months pregnant, and other than a couple breakdowns when my clothes didn't fit, I am coming to the point where I am accepting my body and I am excited to see my belly grow. 



Pictures from my first fitness contest.
So many women think that when you get pregnant it is time to put your feet up and relax. You do need to do that sometimes, but it is also very important to stay fit and active. When I got pregnant I knew it was important to stay in shape but I wasn't sure if you follow your normal fitness program, lessen it, or do something special. When I went to go look on the Internet I found that there is just about zero out there. 

It is very important for me to stay fit and active during my pregnancy for my baby, but for me also. Since there is not a lot out there I would like to take you through what I have learned and what I am doing so when the time comes for you, or if you are there, you will not be as lost as I was. 


Supplements


 When I decided that children were what I wanted I immediately started to take folic acid. This is very important in helping decrease the chance of serious birth defects. It is said that 70% of women know about folic acid but only 30% actually take it. It is very important to take it before, during and after pregnancy. A pre-natal multi-vitamin s also important to make sure that your body has the vitamins and minerals that you and your baby need. 

One great multi-vitamin that has plenty of folic acid is Twinlab Pre-Natal. It has the correct amount of vitamins you need and it won't make you sick. That is definately a plus since most women feel sick during this time anyway. 

It has been said that men who take folic acid before conception have stronger sperm and their baby has a smaller chance of something being wrong, genetic wise. Twinlab also makes their Daily One Caps with folic acid and that is what my husband took for about a year before we got pregnant. 

Pregnant women also need about 60% more protein. You need that protein to make a healthy and beautiful baby. I know there can be a lot of bad tasting protein powders out there but it does not have to be that way. A couple to check out are Optimum Any Whey and Syntrax Nectar protein. The Any Whey is tasteless and so you can do anything you want with it. I sometimes put it in yogurt or my oatmeal. You really don't even know that it is there but you get high quality whey protein! The Nectar is great if you need a change. It comes in cool flavors like Cherry Berry (just like cherry kool-aid), Apple Ecstasy (just like a green jolly rancher) and Caribbean Cool (if you like alcohol you would swear it was the real thing). If you just can't stand to drink it there are always protein bars. A couple popular ones are Detour Bars and Uturn Bars. 

More and more has been coming out about fish oil and its benefits to your baby's brain development. Studies have shown that fish oils can help form the brain and when taken in the third trimester and after birth it can actually help improve your child's smarts! Who knows if you take your fish oils you may have the next Einstein! There are a lot of fish oil capsules out there that can make you burp all day and who wants to smell that? The one that I have had the best luck with is Health From the Sun High Potency Fish Oil. Whatever supplement you choose, be sure that it has DHA in it. 

Calcium is of course very important. So many people have a deficiency even if they are not pregnant. All of the baby's bones need calcium so it will take it from you. If you are short on calcium then you are left with mere scraps. Your gums can begin to bleed and your bones can become weak. Later on in the pregnancy your back can actually hurt worse because of the lack of calcium. So remember to take that everyday. Even pre-natal vitamins do not contain 100% of your daily calcium so you will need something extra. Most dairy products contain a lot of calcium and you can also get it from broccoli, baked beans and some nuts. 


Diet


Of all the things you may crave during pregnancy, remember you are not actually eating for two like many binging pregnant women say. You actually only need 300 extra calories a day! Also, you are not even eating for the baby until 18 weeks. Before that the baby just takes what it needs from your body, even if you do not eat much at all. Make sure you do eat your vitamins, protein and calcium so you do not become depleted. Sometimes it is hard to eat during the first trimester because your body is so full of hormones but that is okay. You can live off of crackers and Sprite and your baby will be fine. 

There are also certain foods you want to stay away from that can harm your baby. There have not been a lot of studies on this but one sweetener you want to stay away from is saccharin. Animal studies show an increase in cancer in offspring. Not something I would want to chance. All of the others seem to be okay but you should limit it to 1-2 servings per day. 

 You will want to avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, shell fish and tilefish because it has such a high level of mercury per serving. This can pose a risk to the child's developing nervous system. Canned tuna is okay once a week but fresh tuna has too much mercury also. Grouper, Amberjack and mahi mahi have a high level of toxins so you should stay way from them too. There are still plenty of fish that are good to eat such as salmon, sea bass, haddock, halibut, cod, sole, flounder, perch and farm raised trout. Remember those fish oils are good for the baby's brain. 

You should try and stay away from foods that are preserved with nitrates. You can check the label to be sure. Some examples are hot dogs, salami and lunch meat. Stay away from soft cheeses like brie, feta, and blue-veined cheeses. There is a chance of listeria. You should stay away from uncooked eggs, pate and under cooked meats because there is a chance of salmonella. It is also said that too much soy can slow down the development of the sex organs in boys. Until I find out what sex my baby is, I am done with soy! Make sure when you eat fruit and vegetables you wash them very well. You, as well as you baby, do not want the pesticides that can be left on the food. 

No matter what you eat you will probably get bloated and get gas. Your intestines have slowed everything down to ensure that the baby gets the vitamins it needs. Just make sure to eat slow. 

Another thing to remember is to floss! You have a higher risk of gum disease and that can lead to preeclampsia and preterm labor. Get a dental checkup and cleaning as soon as you can. 


Preventing Morning Sickness 


There are some things you can do to prevent the dreaded morning sickness. Be sure to drink lots of water... you need this anyway because it helps replace the amniotic fluid for your baby. Exercising can help as well. Make sure you eat right and get plenty of sleep. If you are unable to sleep the whole night you should take short naps through out the day. Being tired can make you even more nauseous. 


Things You Should Immediately Stop Doing


One thing you need to do right now is quit smoking. It is very harmful to the baby. If you smoke, it will live it's first 9 months in a smoke filled womb, cough violently and it may hinder the babies growth. It is also believed that smoking can cause your baby to be more susceptible to cot death. Also, alcohol is another big no-no. More and more studies have shown that alcohol is very harmful to a baby. When you take a drink so does the baby. Just think if it takes you, an adult, three drinks to get tipsy, your baby is on the verge of passing out he is so drunk. It also can increase the risk of miscarriage and birth defects when the baby is born. So no, you can't have just one drink. You are obviously not a virgin anymore, but your drinks should be. 

Caffeine is not a good idea either. The same idea as the alcohol is there. Caffeine keeps you going and gets your system moving. Just think of the effects those stimulants have on your tiny unborn baby. His heartbeat is 150-180 beats per minute as it is so you do not want it any higher! Studies have shown that there is an increase of stillbirth with too much caffeine. Most doctors agree that a little caffeine each day, like only one cup of coffee, probably won't hurt your baby... but why even chance it? 

Average weight gain is 25-30 pounds. It is said that only 38% of women gain what they are supposed to. Women who eat a high fat diet while pregnant may increase the risk of the child developing heart problems later in life. If you gain too much weight it can cause problems like diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia in you and all of this can lead to overly large babies. I am not sure about you but I prefer not to push out a 10lb baby. If you are overweight you also have a higher risk of cesarean delivery and studies have shown that you might also have a problem with lactating. 

Also, and this is just as bad, if you gain too much weight during pregnancy it can take up to 2 years of hard work just to get it off. Many women don't realize that gaining too much weight during pregnancy can cause health problems for the mom and the baby for the rest of their lives. It helps you and your baby be healthy if you can stay in this range. 


Working Out: Cardio And Lifting Weights


 Of all the things that can help, one of the major things is working out. You can be pregnant and still workout. Here are some guidelines to be safe and healthy. When you do cardio, just make sure that you are not so out of breath that you can't carry on a conversation. If you used to run you should go to fast walking. You do not want to do anything that is really jarring to your body. The stair stepper is great... just make sure that if someone came up to you, you could talk to them no problem. 

Also, when you are working out make sure you do not overheat. If you are hot, so is your baby. Drinks lots of water and try and workout indoors if at all possible. Lifting weights doesn't have to be abandoned either. You shouldn't be trying to go for any new personal lifting records but you don't have to stick to the 5 pound dumbbells either. The rule of thumb is to make sure you can carry on a conversation. If you are in the middle of bicep curls make sure you can talk to someone with no problem. Never go to muscular failure on your reps. If you need a workout here is the one that I am doing. It is a basic program and it works great. 


Exercise Sets Reps 
Leg Curls  1 8-12 
Leg Extensions  1 8-12  
Bench Press  1 8-10 
Tricep Pulldowns  1 8-10 
Pulldowns 1 8-10 
Bicep Curls  1 8-10 
Dumbbell Shoulder Press  1 8-10 
Seated Row  1 8-10 
Calves  1 12-15 
Ab Machine Crunches * 1 12-15 

 Click here for a printable log of this workout!

* (make sure you do not do full sit-ups) your ab muscles are loosening and moving and you do not want to pull something. 

I try and make it to the gym twice a week for weights. I used to go to the gym three times a week but I am waiting for some of my energy to come back. Going to the gym twice a week will still give you great benefits and muscle tone. I also do cardio 4-6 times per week for 45 minutes. I just get on my treadmill and read a book. Once I get into a book the time flies for me. You do not have to do this as long or as much as I do but try and at least do cardio 3 times per week. Your body is pumping more blood through your body and you will want as healthy heart as you can get. 

So why should you keep working out? Working out has shown to lower the risk of problems with the child, lower risk of cesarean and lower risk of diabetes. It has also shown that exercise during the first and second trimester help reduce the risk of premature birth. Keeping your legs and lower back muscles in shape can help prevent back pain later in pregnancy. Also, staying in shape can make it much easier for you to lose your pregnancy weight after your baby is born and get back on track with your normal fitness program. 

Another exercise that is important is the Kegel exercises. You do them by pretending you have to go to the bathroom and squeezing your opening shut and then relaxing. You will want to do 50 "reps" per day. This strengthens your pelvic floor and can help with bladder control during and after pregnancy. One really good benefit is that the stronger your pelvic wall, the better the orgasm. Enough for me! Remember if you experience any of these during exercise stop immediately and contact your doctor: 

Contact Your Doctor If These Symptoms Appear: 


Pain, especially in your back or pelvic region 
Excessive tiredness 
Dizziness 
Shortness of breath 
Feeling Faint 
Vaginal bleeding 
Difficulty walking 
Contractions
Remember if you work out, even if you do not feel like it, it will help you get some energy. I know that even when I feel like I do not want to get on the treadmill, once I am done I feel so much better and have more energy than before I started! 

The whole point of following the advice in this article is to have a healthy baby, a healthy body, and a safe and easy pregnancy. It will help you lose the weight and help the baby now and later on in life. Everything that I have talked about I am doing. I have had barely any morning sickness and the couple of bouts I did have I never threw up. I am tired a lot but I find that if I get on the treadmill it helps me wake up. My appetite has been great and I do sometimes crave the sour things like dill pickles and pickled eggs. Acne can be a side effect of pregnancy but so far with a healthy diet and exercise that has not been a problem for me. I have only gained 5 pounds so far. I am starting to get a little pooch and I love it. I can't wait to look pregnant and get to buy all the cute maternity clothes. 

I hope that this has helped you and if you any questions you can email me at Bryna@bodybuilders.com. I will be checking in every month to let you know how it is going and what is going on in the pregnancy and I will give tips on what you need to be doing next. I hope that you will go through my pregnancy with me and I can go through it with you. Remember being pregnant equals being beautiful and I wish everyone a happy and healthy nine months. 


Helpful Resources


Websites: 


http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/ - They have a great answer and question guide. There are some off the wall questions but usually if you have a question you can find the answer. 
http://www.parentsplace.com/messageboards/ - This is a great message boards stop. All you need to do is pick the month you are due and you can talk to other women who are also due the same month. It is fun to talk about what is happening with someone else who is going through the same thing. 

http://www.gravityteen.com/prenatal/sonograms.cfm - This is a great site that shows you in 3-D what your baby looks like at certain weeks. This was you can see what your "apple" looks like. 

http://pregnancy.about.com/library/belly/blbellyindex.htm - This is a fun site to check out what other people look like in their stages of pregnancy. It is fun to compare!

Books: 

I know that there are a lot of books out there and if you know of one that I do not list please let me know and I can add it. These are the books that I have found that I like the best. 


What To Expect When You Are Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenburg and Sandee Hathway, B.S.N. - This is a great book and lets you know what is happening every step of the way. It is also easy to read and understand. 
The Girlfriends' Guide To Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine - I have not read this book yet but from everyone that I talk to about this, this book is a must. 

Pregnancy Week by Week by Dr. Jane MacDougall - This is a great guide that lets you know what is happening in your pregnancy week by week and you can fold it so you can display it on a counter. I have one and it is fun to flip a page every week. 

Pregnancy Journal - I know that this not really a book but every mom to be should have one to record what is happening in her pregnancy. This will great to look back on in the future. I would love to see what my mother went through.

Magazines: 

There again I am sure that are some magazines that I won't include, these are just my favorites. If you have any that you love please let me know. 

"Shape" - Fit Pregnancy - Great tips on working out and other tid bits. 

"Prima Baby" - Even though this is a UK magazine there is tons of great information. The only bad part is sometimes I find something that is cute and it is in the UK! 

"Pregnancy" - Another magazine to learn some great information. 

"Pregnancy Vitality" - This is another UK magazine and it like our Fit Pregnancy magazine here. 

"ePregnancy" - This one is probably my favorite. It has tons of great information.


Click Here For Part Two!
Thanks, 

Bryna DeLuca
Bryna@bodybuilders.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

As many of you know, I have been involved as an iron game writer and author for the past 25 years. During this time many thought provoking questions regarding nutrition have come across my desk (via phone, fax, letter and e-mail). I examined each and every one of these most commonly asked questions and thoughtfully answered them in direct proportion to the needs of the individual asking them. 

My intent was hopefully to eliminate some of the pseudo-scientific/intellectual confusion that is generally associated with nutrition, with complete and non superfluous answers that would be helpful in their continuing quest for bodybuilding superiority. 

Commonly Asked Questions 

Here are some of the most thought-provoking questions regarding nutrition and the accompanying No BS answers!!! I hope you enjoy reading them. 


How is the Basal Metabolic Rate measured to determine whether the individual in question has SLOW, MEDIUM or FAST metabolism? 


Basal Metabolic Rate is not static. The BMR will fluctuate with varying factors. For example, the younger the person, the higher the BMR and as one ages, the rate will decrease about 2% per decade. Another factor is whether the lifter is sleeping or awake. During sleep there is much more muscular activity than in an awake relaxed period, but physical activity will increase the BMR. 

Another factor that will increase the BMR is eating. Digesting foods, juices flowing, etc., will increase the BMR. Another factor is body-surface, not weight. For example, a 185 lb. lifter who is 6'0" will generally have a higher BMR than a 185 5'4" lifter. The point here is that heat is lost over the taller, more skinned-surface lifter of 6'0" tall. 

Still other factors include gender, men's metabolic rate are higher than women's rates. Also, the more muscular a lifter, the higher the BMR. That is, because muscular tissue is far more active than adipose or fat tissue. Fasting and long periods of caloric intake especially leading to malnutrition lead to lowering of BMR. 

The Basal Metabolic Rate is taken usually at rest while awake 12 hours after eating. A rough estimate of one's BMR is to take ½ calorie per pound/hour (for 1 male, 180 pound lifter that would be 90 calories/hour) and then multiply that figure by 24 hours, or 2160 calories per day. For a woman, use 0.4 calories per pound/hour. Then figure about 60 to 70% just for BMR. Add another 30% to 2160 calories for activity, growth, etc. 


Depending on AGE, SEX, BODYWEIGHT (be it proportionately more muscle as opposed to fat) approximately how many calories are utilized at the Basal Rate and during high intensity activity during a 24 hour time frame? 


Several good charts are available for high-energy activity. These charts covering all types of activity from jogging, to weight-training, swimming, playing cards, etc., were determined by the "Spirometer-an oxygen consumption device." This device simply measures the use of oxygen. The amount of calories expended would therefore, be dependent upon the type of activity, rest interval, age, sex, condition, fasting, etc.,. of that particular person. 


When ratios of daily intakes of PROTEINS (30%), COMPLEX CARBS (60%), and POLYUNSATURATED FATS (10%) are recommended, shouldn't these percentages be based more accurately on the individual's Bodyfat Percentage and Existing Muscle Content? For example, a person who has more muscle and only 10% or less bodyfat would take in more complete protein and slightly less complex carbs and fats than the above recommended. 


The Recommended Dietary Allowances offer a ratio of 20-25% protein, 25-30% fat, and 50-55% carbohydrates for the NORMAL, HEALTHY PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES. And these percentages are meant only as a guideline. It is a fact that a man, whether lifter or non lifter, requires approximately 1/2 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Women require about 0.4 grams/pound. So for a 150-lb. male lifter, about 75 grams would be adequate. 

It would be possible to receive, say, in a range of 1/2-3/4 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. However, ingesting more protein than is really needed, say more than .75 grams of protein, would not be of any benefit, indeed, potentially harmful. Consider that any excess protein is handled by the body simply as excess calories. These protein calories first must be broken down by the liver, removing the amino acid structure in a process called "De-aminization." Five hundred extra calories from protein would then be stored. 

The key is bodyweight--given a fixed number of calories, say 2400, continue to keep the given 30% protein, 60% carbs, and 10% fat ratio. Remember, too, that fats are IMPORTANT. Fats carry vital acids and vitamins and play an important part in metabolic roles necessary for health, as well as fitness and strength. Lifters increasing their protein beyond their individual bodyweight/30% percentage find themselves sluggish, putting on that smooth layer of fat and, if continued, may be potentially harming their liver. 


When a person, be it a man, woman, or child, who is ingesting a daily caloric intake of 30% complete proteins, 60% complex carbs, and 10% polyunsaturted fats (realize that the percentages of each food varies slightly depending on whether it is for a child or adult, etc.), would the above percentages meet and exceed the 
FDA Suggested Requirements of Vitamins and Minerals, etc., and in doing so virtually ELIMINATE the need for extra supplementation in the form of vitamins and protein powders? 


One of the haunting elements about the American Dietetic Association's "recommended dietary allowances" or the RDAs is the fact that one could choose the correct number of food group selections and STILL not meet these recommended allowances. The nutrients in question, especially the water-soluble vitamins, C and B-complex, are noted. 

Another example is, of course, iron and calcium. Women especially, as they need 18 mg/day to men's 10 mg. Again, consider this as a guideline for normal, healthy persons and not a lifter or athletes in an anabolic state. My suggestion is to choose "nutrient-dense" foods such as enriched wheat breads and cereals fortified with iron, vitamins and minerals, choose at least 2 servings from the citrus fruits and juices, and choose only skim or low-fat dairy products, 2, possibly 3 servings. I never liked the word "insurance" relating to taking vitamins. There is such a state as too much, which can be toxic in several vitamins. Base your protein choices on fish or fowl first, then if you prefer, very, very lean beef occasionally. 


How much PROTEIN must be ingested for a person to over toxify the liver before it is harmful? How long a period of time will it take (days, weeks, months) for a person to reach this Toxicity or Saturation Point? Sedentary? Active bodybuilder? 


I believe I answered this question above. Remember, though that every person is different, and the ill effects may take a short time, months, or years, or may never show. However, at what point would you realize harm? When your liver fails! In other words, you may now be a little more sluggish in energy and recuperation today than you were exactly one year ago because of over ingesting protein. And, where will you be next year? Not ill enough to notice, but yet in perspective, not as healthy as you once were. Just realize that too much protein is potentially dangerous. 


Many authorities state that it takes PROTEIN (broken down into amino acid content) 4 hours to reach the blood stream, and then it only stays in the blood stream at 32 grams for 3 or 4 hours. Does this apply for both complete and incomplete protein sources if it takes 3 to 4 hours for a solid protein food to 
Break Down, how long then does it take a drink which contains protein powder to break down into amino content? How about the breakdown of amino acid tablets as opposed to protein powder? 


Normal digestion depends greatly on a variety of factors--age, physical condition of the person, activity immediately after eating, and especially the mix of foods. Protein digestion will take place between 1 and 4 hours with a normal mix of carbs and fat. Realize that your digestive system is working on these other nutrients, carbs, and fat as well. 

There is a "pool" of amino acids that is maintained in the gut for normal use by the body's cells. The difference between complete and incomplete protein is simply that complete proteins have all of the eight (ten) essential amino acids. The body has a unique way of converting incomplete proteins, say corn or grains, to complete by supplying these incomplete foods with the lacking or more correctly inadequate amino acids. But first the overall digestion process of amino acids must go from the GI tract to the liver and be properly metabolized. Then into the pool. 

Whether a solid piece of turkey breast or a liquid sip of protein, the body will not know the difference. By the time the turkey arrives to the gut, it's probably in a semi-solid state, so no real time difference is gained by swallowing liquids. Whether powders, pills, or a slice of freshly roasted turkey, your body utilizes its protein in the same manner. One thing that will definitely interfere with digestion is STRESS. If you re worried, angry, etc., relax first, then eat. 


Explain the term Nitrogen Balance. 


"Nitrogen balance" simply means that amount of nitrogen taken in (ingested) as compared to the amount of nitrogen that is excreted in the urine and feces. Most lifters, because of the anabolic or growth state, are said to be in "positive nitrogen balance." There is more nitrogen going into the body than is coming out. Negative balance occurs when a muscle atrophies such as in an injury and lifters cannot work out. If 10 grams are ingested and 12 are excreted, negative balance is achieved. Nitrogen balance is usually done by collecting the urine and feces in a given period. When the amount of food nitrogen is calculated against the amount of nitrogen excreted, the result is the state of balance. 


What type of Nutritional Programs would be recommended for the ECTO, MESO, ENDO, and SOMATO type? What supplementation would be suggested for gaining muscle bodyweight for the 3 somato types? For losing bodyfat (Meso and Endo) while maintaining maximum strength levels? 


The three basic body types, Meso, Endo, and Ectomorph, vary in the size of the bone structure. However, the basic physiology in handling nutrients is equal. Given the same basal metabolic rate and hormonal status, each will respond to the calorie identically. In identifying nutritional needs of these three, a basic goal must be set. For example, bodyweight, measurements, total % of bodyfat, etc. 

Find Out What Your Body Type Is HERE! 

A nutritional program of high-energy foods such as the simple and complex carbohydrates, foods such as grains, cereals, potatoes, beans and peas, etc., plus fruits, juices, and vegetables should be primary and make up about 55-60% of the diet. Proteins from fish, chicken, turkey, and very, very lean beef should comprise about 20-25% of the diet, and the remaining calories come from fats--unsaturated oils. 

Supplementing of these three types will depend, of course, on the individual's lifestyle, eating habits, training routines, and goals. Both calories and nutrients, including the vitamins/minerals, should be met from the diet. Over supplementation can prove to be deleterious. Therefore, supplement only when the need arises such as a dislike for milk and dairy products, i.e., calcium. 


What type of Supplements are good for creating an ANABOLIC STATE for the natural bodybuilder (male or female) void of steroid usage? Dosages (determined by age, sex, and bodyweight) for the 3 somato types? 


According to the definition, the term "anabolic state" means in a state of growth or building. The role of protein is to both build and repair tissue. Being in an anabolic state, therefore, would require your body to build, say, muscle tissue. For adults, the most common is after surgery or injury. But for the powerlifter or bodybuilder, the term anabolic, or rather "anabolic steroids," applies to that person, man or woman, who wishes to gain muscular tissue. Unfortunately, no amount of good eating, supplements, powders, pills, etc., will advance a person into this state. Only the demand of physical activity, weight resistance, lifting, will create that demand. Then it is up to that person to furnish the necessary nutrients for growth. 


Which Brand-Name Supplements on the market would create the above effect? 


As far as what brand of supplements, doses, etc., on the market, each is simply a supplement. Whether multi-complex vitamin/mineral supplement or a specific amino acid, a supplement refers to "an addition to the existing basic nutritional status." Anabolic steroids are hormones, not nutrients. They alter the metabolism of the cell's ability to utilize protein toward growth, i.e. protein retention/utilization. But again, the proper nutrients must be there in order for growth to occur. Also, the demand of an exercise routine must be there in order for growth to occur. No over-the-counter supplement, liquid, powder, or tablet, will create that effect. 


How much Sugar (those found in the foods we take in as well as table sugars) does the AVERAGE PERSON (child, teen, middle age, elderly) ingest in a year's time? 


The latest survey found that the average person in the United States, eating an average diet, consumed an average of 128 pounds of sugar per year. Realize that is up from only 4 pounds consumed about 100 years ago! 


Sugar interferes with Protein Resynthesis; how does this take place, and how much protein is destroyed? 


There is a myth that sugar "interferes with protein synthesis." In fact, sugar, glucose, indeed exerts a protein-sparing action. If there is a shortage of energy, sugar, the body will turn to protein for its energy supply. A waste of protein, yes, but nature takes care of your body's priority--energy. Physiologically, your body utilizes the B-complex family of vitamins for both protein and energy metabolism. And, therefore, it could be said that excessive sugar, table sugar, such as sucrose, a fruit sugar, fructose, milk sugar, lactose, etc., all require B vitamins for digestion, especially Thiamin or vitamin B12, to "interfere" with protein's need for a certain vitamin (co-enzyme). 

How much sugar depends on, of course, the overall CHO-protein ratio. However, there is more harm in too few calories from CHO including table sugar than there is in excess sugar. The point is to secure your energy needs from fruit, vegetables, grain, to secure plenty of energy and B vitamins from cereals, breads, etc. 



Why do TEENS on the average not experience Sugar-Related Problems as opposed to a person in their mid-20s or 30s, for example? 


I'm not fully aware that teens do not experience sugar-related problems. Teens have a tremendous energy for growth requirement. Therefore, 3500 calories for a teen will be almost entirely utilized, where 3500 calories for an adult whose basal metabolism os lower may store a greater portion of the calories ingested. Also, teens tend to be more active physically. 

Diabetes is a combination of a genetic/obese/hormonal problem. In the case of adult-onset diabetes, obesity is often considered a major risk factor. 


How much Glycogen will a male and female bodybuilder store in the muscle and liver and glucose in the bloodstream? Depending on existing bodyweight, how much will this glycogen content vary? 


The average person would store approximately 375 to 475 grams of glycogen (about 12 ounces) in their muscles and liver. Figures vary, of course, depending on the size of the individual, overall nutritional status, and conditioning. Normally, glycogen depletion will occur in approximately 24 hours. 


It has been mentioned many times that blood sugar (glucose) and muscle glycogen will only accommodate a high-intensity workout of 1-1/2 to 2 hours at most. How much Glucose and Glycogen is the average male or female bodybuilder using during a medium workout with progressive resistance devices? Low intensity? 


Balance studies, the studies performed on volunteers in the process of determining how many calories are utilized in an activity, are at the best, extremely difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Although energy expenditures for individuals will vary, realize that even a particular individual may vary in energy consumption for a movement. One variable is the intensity of the movement and for the workout. 

For a heavy weight-training session, on the average, a person will burn about 612 calories per hour... For calisthenics, a light session will burn about 272 calories/hour while a heavy session, about 544. Aerobics: light session, 204; medium, 340; and a heavy session, about 544 calories. By the way, kissing will burn from 16 to 30 calories an hour. Again, it depends on the individual(s), the type, and, of course, intensity! 


Does a bodybuilder ever use Reserved Glycogen from the liver (as is the case in carb depletion and loading specifically) when muscle glycogen is exhausted during a workout of normal circumstances? 


Studies have shown that athletes who train exhaustively over a period of 2-3 successive days will deplete muscle and liver glycogen. Diet plays a part in that if a high CHO are ingested (55-60%) less fatigue will show on days 2 and 3. Also, recuperation will be more rapid in the high CHO diet. Full recuperation, however, may take from 2-4 days of CHO and rest. 


A confusing situation presents itself to the above question in that many proclaimed nutritionists and bodybuilding experts say that, when muscle glycogen is depleted, fat stores are then used as Energy Substrate. How can this be when over and over it has been said that, during an anaerobic workout, there is not sufficient time for the conversion of fatty acid stores into energy substrate and that protein or amino content is the secondary source of energy for anaerobic workouts? 


The question is essentially correct. There is not sufficient time for fats-proteins to be utilized as energy in an anaerobic workout. Remember, though, the duration of such movements are only about 90-120 seconds. Once movement continues past this time frame, both anaerobic systems will need to be employed for energy production... 

Anaerobic - phosphates 
CHO glucose > pyruvic acid 
Aerobic - CHO - protein - fats 
The question implies stores of glycogen. Remember, after successive days of intense workouts, muscle glycogen may be nearly depleted, but liver glycogen is restored much more rapidly. Time of movement is the key. The first 90-120 seconds produces more glycogen; beyond, a combination of CHO - protein - fats. 


Do the questions above have any direct bearing to "Hitting The Wall" ... where glycogen stores in certain muscle extremities deplete themselves? If this is the case, shouldn't smaller body parts such as the arms employ less sets, due to less glycogen storage, as opposed to larger body parts such as the thighs and back? 


Glycogen use is a constant rate of depletion of stores, not a quantitative depletion. Certain variables such as individual energy output of muscles involved will play a part in "hitting the wall"; however, the rate is constant throughout. 


How does a bodybuilder know how much of a particular supplement he or she is Absorbing? For example, if a person takes in 32 grams of complete protein, how can he be sure if the absorption rate is 50% or 75% or even 100% of the actual intake? 


Protein absorption is usually around 92% of intake with variables consisting of the specific foods, status of individual, nutrition, psychological profile (i.e., stress). Absorption rate, though, is constant. Animal proteins are absorbed at a higher rate (95%), whereas vegetable proteins are absorbed below 95%, possibly 75-90%. Fats are generally absorbed at the rate of 95% and carbs at 97%. 


I'm curious as to how supplement companies make Time-Released Vitamins work? 


There are many ways that companies produce "time-released capsules." One of the most predominant is the use of wax. The capsule itself is a gelatin (gelatinous compound) that will dissolve quickly in the stomach. The entire batch of pills is then sprayed with sugar or carbohydrate. This batch is separated, 1/3 sugar coated, and the remaining 2/3 of the batch is then coated with a waxy type substance. This batch is divided into a 1/3 and the remaining batch is covered again with another coating of wax. 

The idea is that the sugar coated batch, or 1/3 of the tiny pills in the capsule, will be released in the stomach (as the gelatin capsule is dissolved), quickly releasing the "vitamin." The remaining 2/3 batch or the waxy coated pills will take a bit longer to dissolve. Of course, this is calculated to the degree of coatings or thickness of the wax, i.e., the greater the waxy coatings, the longer the time of dissolving. 


Some authorities on nutrition (the late Vince Gironda) say that it is a good idea to take Vitamin Supplements for 4 to 5 days consecutively, then cease taking any vitamin supplements for at least 72 hours. Why is this recommended, and what is metabolically happening in the body during this time? 


I am familiar with Vince Gironda's theory. However, that is an ambiguous statement. For example, if you are deprived of any of the water soluble vitamins for up to 72 hours, your storage water soluble pool will become depleted. Serious metabolic consequences will occur as a result. 

Another consideration is that one may adapt to megadoses of vitamin C, for example. If the body does adapt to a larger-than-normal vitamin C requirement, once this supplemental is discontinued, deficiency symptoms may occur. Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are not subject to temporary inadequacies/deficiencies in the daily diet. However, this does depend on normal nutrition status. 


What are some definite things a bodybuilder (male or female) can do to LOWER his or her Metabolic Set-Point in order to gain muscle bodyweight? 


Personally, I wouldn't advise anyone to seek ways to lower their metabolic rate. If you wish to gain weight, then employ the correct exercise/diet plan. However, metabolic rates will fall during periods of sustained physical inactivity. The weight you would gain, therefore, would be adipose tissue while your muscles would atrophy. 


What can a person do to SPEED UP the Metabolic Set-Point in order to lose bodyfat? 


Recent studies indicate that aerobics (especially cross training of such) will increase the BMR for a period of up to 72 hours. Thus, a regular workout of 3 days or more per week will keep the BMR higher than normal. 


If a bodybuilder is decreasing his or her Daily Caloric Intake by 1000 calories (this has been determined to be the maximum that one can decrease in a daily diet to ensure losing maximum bodyfat without much muscle tissue loss), then a problem arises in the following hypothetical example. 

A hard-working bodybuilder weighs 200 lbs. and takes in 4000 calories to maintain his present weight. Deciding to lose 10 lbs., the bodybuilder decreases his caloric intake by 1000 calories (to ensure the loss of 2 lbs. of bodyfat a week and no more) to 3000 calories. 

Five weeks into the bodyfat weight loss plan, a new 190-lb. bodyweight is achieved. The bodybuilder has reached is goal successfully. Great, but a problem arises in that a 190-lb. bodyweight utilizes an average of 3800 calories. The bodybuilder, after using 3000 calories a day diet, must now increase back up to 3800 calories to maintain a new bodyweight. How can he do this without gaining the 10 lb. loss back? 


When the bodybuilder "achieves" his desired bodyweight of 190 lbs., 3800 calories should, with everything constant, maintain his 190 lbs. while in the state of weight reduction. Let's say he wanted to go to 180 lbs. He would then reduce his caloric intake to 2800. Once his desired bodyweight is achieved, then approximately 3600 will "hold" his present 180 lbs. of bodyweight. 


Does the above have something to do with a New Established Metabolic Set-Point? 


No! The set-point is a theory that focuses in on your body's system of holding a bodyweight at a particular set point such as 190 lbs. Workouts targeted aerobically will elevate the set to a higher point, thus burning more calories at the basal metabolic level. The above question refers to calorie maneuvering, not metabolic maneuvering. 


Is the Metabolic Set-Point a KEY FACTOR as to why some individuals can't seem to lose even 5 lbs. of bodyweight (be it bodyfat, muscle, or water) after being on a 1000 calories a day reduction for weeks? 


I agree with studies done on the BMR that will lower according to calorie intake. Factors that will influence resisting weight loss are the standard (1) activity, (2) number of fat cells, standard number at birth, (3) reduction of caloric intake. 


It is stated for Health Purposes that a woman should not drop below 1200 calories per day when on a fat reduction diet. How would this work for a female who is only 110 lbs. and takes in 1300 to 1400 calories to maintain this bodyweight? In other words, if this person's desire was to lose 3 to 5 lbs., she most certainly could not reduce her caloric intake by more than 200 calories to meet the above 1200 minimum, and in doing so, she might only experience slightly less than a 1/2 lb. drop in body weight a week. Overall it would take her 6 to 10 weeks to lose on a program of this nature. 

It seems that the guidelines of DROPPING 1000 CALORIES PER DAY to lose a pound a week would vary greatly depending on the sex of the person involved and their bodyweight and caloric needs. Likewise, it is recommended that a male not drop below 1500 calories per day when on a fat reduction diet. If the bodybuilder in question 24 had dropped down to 1500 calories per day from the 3000 he was at when he was losing a pound of fat a week, he most surely would have lost much in the way of muscle tissue rather than fat stores. Can you clarify this existing problem? The problem being the rule of caloric intakes of 1200 for women and 1500 for men. 


The question of 1200-1500 for women and men respectively is a good basic guideline. The problem arises particularly for a woman in receiving the proper nutrients in a package of 1200 calories. Dropping below 1200 to 1000 or even 800 accentuates the problem. I believe that, for a short duration of say 6-8 weeks, a 1000 or even 800 calories could be adhered to safely. Supplements in the form of a quality multivitamin-mineral would elevate the nutrient intake to the normal RDA standards. 


It has been stated that 22% of a pound of Pure Muscle is protein. This is roughly 132 calories or 33 grams. Yet another reference says that there are 6 grams of protein per ounce in a pound of muscle, which suggests 384 calories or 96 grams per pound. This then would suggest that 66% of the calories of a muscle are protein. Which reference is correct? 


Actually, 22% would be an average % of protein. In reality, a muscle may range from 15-22% or higher depending on the strength and integrity of the muscle. 


How are the 12 Nonessential Amino Acids produced in the body? 


The nonessential, commonly called due to the fact that the body, specifically the liver, can manufacture these as needed. From the 8 essential amino acids, the body has the ability to put together the remaining 12 amino acids. Also, remember that it is relatively easy to acquire the 12 nonessential acids as compared to the essential 8. 


One gram or Carbohydrate contains 3 parts water. Can this be simplified into a more acceptable example? 


A chemist's view of a glucose (carbohydrate) molecule is composed of 24 atoms: 6 carbon, 12 hydrogen, and 6 oxygen, or C6 H12 O6. Thus, carbohydrates contains 6 carbon atoms and 6 H2O atoms. When a pair of these are joined, one of the H and one of the OH are removed in the joining process, called condensation reaction; water is formed. Also, hydrolysis occurs when these 2 are split for energy release. 


How does the Bodily Physiology Process determine that the reduction of 500 Kcals for bodyfat loss is to be taken from fat stores and not from muscle tissue (since the 500 Kcal reduction is so remarkably close to the number of Kcals in a pound of muscle)? 


This question is extremely good and challenging. There have been people who have been researching this for years because they've been trying to spare muscle tissue from deprivation and the body does tend to deprive it during the extreme diets. There is no doubt about it, and what they've been trying to do is, at least in Europe, we understand they're working with new enzymes now that are supposed to stop the body from using its protein caloric intakes, and some of them use much more extreme examples than you do. 

It's almost binge and starve things where one day a week they might go up to 40000 and the next day they go down to 3200. Out in California, a couple of bodybuilders I know of were dieting, and one of them was using a system where he was just taking a steady amount of calories and at the time he was really trying to lose weight, so he was well down into the 1200 and 1300 calorie range, which was really silly for a person his size of 285 pounds, but he was doing it. 

Now, the other bodybuilder was using an alternate system where he'd diet at that rate for maybe three or four days out of the week, and he'd exceed it for maybe three or four days out of the week but never go above 3000. But the point is, the 285-pound bodybuilder did lose more weight than the second bodybuilder did over time, but that could have been because of genetic determinants rather than just any pat statement that I could make on the subject. 

But overall, I think, you can't take it on a daily approach you have to take it on a weekly, monthly, yearly approach and then add up the total amount of calories. At least, that is what science says. Then you can have a determinant, but we're not convinced that that's necessarily true. I kind of think that, if you do oscillate stresses like that, you can promote some results and maybe some of them will be protein saving rather than protein depleting, and this stores, but they're having mixed results with this. The body still seems to do this as much as it does with fats. 

What I've read and what some people surmise is that, early on in our primordial past, the need for fat was something to see us through the lean times and was just as important as our muscle mass for that reason alone. And for that reason, it is somewhat protected, and what they are trying to do is beat that basic need. It is going to take some type of chemistry to do it, but we think they are on the right track, and if they get established what nutrients need to be taken to protect your protein levels and muscle tissues, then they've got the ideal weight losing tool there. But we cannot assume that a muscle only has 600, a pound of muscle only has 600 kilocalories. 

That's incorrect. It has close to 2000, so we got to be careful with that. But you're right; you know, as well as attacking fat it will attack the muscle but to a lesser degree. It will always go toward the fat at the cost of some of the protein tissues, especially as you come closer to your ideal weight, but even then it will still spare fat to some extent. It will keep a reserve of fat handy just in case of emergency needs. It's interesting how we evolved that capacity. 


Some nutritionists state that by eating less, the Basal Metabolic Rate will slow down in an effort to conserve more fat calories. Wouldn't this be a problem for the somato type ectomorph who is trying to slow down his or her already fast metabolism? Wouldn't this person even have a MORE DIFFICULT time gaining muscle weight because of this? 


When you go into diet, it does slow down your BMR to a certain extent. That's been proven, but with an ectomorph, this normally isn't a factor, because he's not eating less, he's trying to eat more. He's already got a high basal metabolic rate, and we're trying to exceed it willfully, so we are talking about quite the opposite things. One of the problems with him is to exceed his basal metabolic rate. 

We're really going to have to pump the old food into him, and his system may not be that efficient at it. We've seen it happen that these types of ectomorphs can make some gains if we really do put the food and supplements to them. We heard of a seven-foot guy from Denmark who attended a major university in the States. The guy weighed 89 pounds, and in little over a year, the strength trainer got him up to 220 pounds just by basic bodybuilding procedures. He was about as ectomorphic as you can get. 

So it can be done, but the key thing here for the ectomorph is to dramatically increase his daily caloric intake and actually hurt his efficiency rather than help it. You want to hurt his efficiency in order for him to gain some bodyweight. The fat person is just too efficient to begin with, and that's the whole problem with fatties. 


What is the minimal amount of daily complete PROTEINS, COMPLEX CARBS, and POLYUNSATURATED FATS a person can take in before the body is adversely affected? I am referring to the Radical Diets that the competitive bodybuilder sometimes follows. 


When we start getting underneath a person's BMR levels, that's when we're starting to ask for trouble, because BMR levels are determinants of normal functions. The Soviets call this "delayed" restoration. You need to repair, rebuild, or replace, and when we start getting under our BMR levels for protracted periods of time, we're asking for real serious problems. 

A bodybuilder has to do it two or three weeks, maybe four weeks at the longest, before a meet, and his system can take that kind of stress. But if you protract that stress of contest dieting over a long period of time, then you're asking for all sorts of trouble. I would say that, before a person is adversely affected, that's a determinant because that's going to be different for every individual. They're going to lose mass, and they can lose a lot of that. 

Look at the World War II prison camps. People lived for years that way, but they were adversely affected. And incidentally, a lot of them gained back their mass, and that's where anabolic steroids started coming into vogue during that period of time. A lot of them never really came back quite to the same as the extent before they were put through this ordeal by the fascists, so it is a problem but it's not a tremendous problem if it's done in short durations. 


What is the PROPER RATIO of each nonessential amino acid to each essential amino acid in order for a person to receive Optimum Nutritional Value? 


Well, this will be a first. I don't know! I don't have a clue, and the reason I don't have a clue is because nonessential amino acids are produced within the body out of components of various free-floating amino acids that are available. So how can I answer such a question? The essential amino acids, granted, they are -- some of their byproducts are some of those that are used in creating essential amino acids. But there are also other sources for this, and some of them are indigenous within the body because, remember, the body does a lot of protein resynthesis itself. So these aren't directly attributed to the diet per se so here again I've been given a question that I can't really answer properly. 


List the P.E.R. (Protein efficiency ratio) of the top fifty foods with milk and eggs being the top of the line and going from that point. 


You could do that with a book, and yd be better off to do it with a book. I don't have that book in front of me. I've seen the tables; they list them all. I would suggest that, if there's a university or even a high school nearby, you go see their nutritional person, even a hospital, and they'll have these books that'll list these foods in their order of value. 


One part Salt or Sodium holds 180 parts water. Can this be explained in simpler terms? For example, if one had a teaspoon of salt, how much water would be attached to this? 


I don't understand how one part salt holds 180 parts of water. I don't understand that whole concept at all. I presume they mean it retains 180 parts of water, and that's not true. That's one of those determinant things. That depends on the individual very much. 

Some people, e.g. colored people, retain salt at a much greater rate than do white folks simply because in their native country they used to sweat more. It was a mechanism to avoid losing salt in their sweat. It was so hot, they did used to sweat but they didn't sweat out the same salt products that we would, and hence they evolved this mechanism where they retained salt, and this is one of the primary causes of some of the hypertension we see in some ethnic blacks vis-a-vis the Caucasians. 

I don't think you can state in this question that one part of salt holds 180 parts of water. I think that is an erroneous statement. I'd have to see some backup on that. It doesn't seem to make much sense to me. That would mean one gram of sodium chloride would hold back 180 grams of water. Systemically, there might be something to it, but I'd have to see the research in order to be able to make any kind of intelligent assessment of that. 


Can a bodybuilder employ the nutritional concepts of Carbohydrate Loading/Depletion and sodium loading together prior to an UPCOMING CONTEST? If so, how might this plan be accomplished? 


Carbohydrate loading and depletion doesn't have that much relevance to a bodybuilder. Those are things that you do for endurance-type events like marathon running and whatnot. They don't really have any validity to a bodybuilder, and sodium loading is dangerous; it's not something you want to do. 

For neurological reasons, it's not something you want to do. You can cause some aberration and a whole bunch of calcium channel responses by doing this, and you can make a person subject to spasms and all sorts of muscular problems, too, including cramping. Carbohydrate loading and depletion is not advocated for a bodybuilder just coming up to a contest. There's no point in it. It is primarily an endurance-building tool, it's not a bodybuilding tool. 

It just goes to show that the body will jump on anything that seems to work. Carbohydrate loading is used by marathon runners. What they do is they deprive themselves of carbohydrates to make their system more amenable to uptakes, and then a day before their big meet, they load up with the carbs, and their system will be functioning at peak efficiency, and it will absorb these carbs as they are running along and hence the theory, and it's proving to be somewhat advantageous. 

But sodium loading has a whole bunch of concomitant ills that make it just something you don't want to do. I don't know anybody who wants to do that unless they're in an environment where they're losing a lot of sodium through sweating. And, if so, this also doesn't have much to do with bodybuilding unless you're bodybuilding in a very damp environment, and then you can get that in your normal diet rather than loading it into yourselves. 

That's like taking the salt pills that they used to use before really hot days out on football fields. They don't do that any more simply because we found out that sodium has a lot of negative implications. But it is necessary and essential in moderate amounts (200-2000 milligrams) for a normal, healthy person who is not suffering from high blood pressure or hypertension. 


How is it possible that exercise suppresses the hunger factor by supposedly raising the Blood Sugar Level when it is in fact exercise which DEPLETES BLOOD GLUCOSE AND MUSCLE GLYCOGEN LEVELS during exercise? 


What happens in exercise is that the liver also supplies a lot of stores of glycogen that's broken down into glucose, and this is put into the blood stream in response to a depletion of glucose and glycogen supplies in the blood and the muscles themselves. So that's why this phenomenon takes place. Whats happening is the liver is simply pumping out its supply of glycogen and incidentally, after a few hours go by, the liver starts telling your, "hey, I want to restock." So this phenomenon that exercise does prevent hunger is true, but it is only true for a certain amount of time, and then after that time, the liver starts saying, "feed me," "feed me," and you do. 


It has been suggested that Starvation Diets that include no accompanying high-intensity exercises will cause a loss in bodyweight of approximately 1/3 fat and 2/3 muscle loss. How soon after a starvation diet begins (10 days, one month, 92 days?) Does this process begin? 


The figures that you quote are very much the initial response to extreme starvation diets, later on in response, and there is no absolute determinant, because once again that depends on the individual. But I'd say probably within 30-40 days you're getting a lot more efficient with your fatty acid metabolism and probably much before that time, so that ratio changes. 

Of course, it also depends somewhat on the activity of the individual, too, because there will be some protein salvation toward the latter stages of any starvation diet, and that's a bona fide fact. You notice the body does try and protect a certain amount of protein mass, and at the loss of the fat, and that's essential like unto death, although it will always save some fat like we mentioned earlier. It will always do that; again, one of its defense mechanisms. 


Just exactly how does the body protect muscle loss when diet is accompanied with High-Intensity Exercise as opposed to fat and muscle loss when no high-intensity training is followed? 


One of the mechanisms, and this is just theoretical, mind you, is that, when you're working out and dieting, there's a lot of byproducts that are produced, and some of these byproducts supposedly may put a chemical damper of sorts on the body's tendency to go into attacks on protein or muscle mass because it reads this as, these things are being used and can't be used as one of the sources of energy. That's one of the theories that is used on this. 

It's been an observational thing with us that, if you have a bodybuilder who is training and dieting moderately, he tends not to lose the same degree of muscle mass as would be the case of an athlete who is dieting intensely and isn't doing much. I surmise this response is due to the byproducts that are being built up in the system of the active athlete and that these byproducts spare his protein. Now, grant you, this is theoretical, but it seems to be plausible, doesn't it? 

Of course, if it's a very severe diet where you're cutting calories by 40-50%, well, then, this isn't going to be in effect. You're going to still have this problem with muscle mass loss, but maybe not to the same extent as you get with an individual who did nothing at all. But at this stage it still might not be to any great extent, the difference in terms of protein loss, during the initial phases. 

During the latter phases, it might not be so bad, though. I knew one strength athlete who once went from 322 pounds, as a super heavyweight, down to about 170 pounds, and that's the truth, and at 180 he was still at about 14-15 percent body fat, and at 322 pounds he was 31 percent body fat. So it lets you know that even though he had lost all that great mass, he had lost a lot of muscle tissue, and it showed in his lifts accordingly. 

Trying to spare muscle tissue from loss is one of the most difficult propositions, and that's why I'm encouraged by research that's going toward the enzymatic levels. I surmise that some day, probably 10-15 years down the road, they're going to come up with a chemical that people an take, either orally or injectable, that will prevent some of those things we see with protein loss during dieting, and this will be a great boon, incidentally. It's one of the things that they're researching now; it's right on the cutting edge. 


It is generally agreed that Aerobic Training of a minimum of 20 minutes per session will burn bodyfat and will continue to do so for several hours (4-6) later, while revving up the metabolic mechanics by as much as 25% over its norm. A question therefore arises: what type of bodyweight is lost if a bodybuilder (male or female) chooses not to follow an aerobic plan for fat reduction and opts to use anaerobic weight training only? 


I don't necessarily generally agree with this question. It assumes that you have already burned off your glycogen and glucose supplies, which is highly probable in aerobic training, and that will cause you to go into fatty acid metabolism, which will persist for some time. But this assumes that you've totally depleted that supply or depleted it to such an extent that you evoke the fatty acid metabolism response, and this also assumes that you are not taking in any nutrients in the meantime that will replace your glucose and glycogen supplies. But even if you did, the fatty acid metabolism synthesis would already be started, but it could be halted relatively quickly. 

As far as using anaerobic weight training to lose weight, that's like using a hammer to pound in screws. There are better tools to use for it, that's for sure. You're not going to get the best results by using anaerobic weight training as a dietary aid for two reasons. 

One, it simply doesn't burn off a sufficient amount of calories (though some would say it is better to burn calories through exercise than to restrict them from dieting). Two, it's more or less made for building and not reducing, and here we've got an improper tool used for the wrong purpose. And three, we can't determine what type of bodyweight is lost no matter what the person is using for a system that is adjunct to his diet. 

The primary concern here is diet and not exercise. Exercise is good, and it's great, and as we were explaining earlier, it will add to the amount of calories you burn off over the course of a day or two. But it's not significant compared to the body's basal metabolic rate to begin with, as I said. You can maybe burn off 10-20% more calories than you normally would if you're doing really incredibly intense activities, and I don't care if they're aerobic or anaerobic. It won't be a different type of body fat that is burned off. It will be the same old body fat. 

Of course, if you go into a state of intense dieting, and I've also mentioned this, before you can go into protein deprivation, which is common for the system to do. Its first response to starvation is to attack the stores of protein that are available, and usually these are stored in organs much like glycogen is; they're stored in the bile form. But it'll deplete these reserves during the initial phase of starvation while fatty acid metabolsim pathways are established and made more efficient. 


What type of Bodyweight (percentage of fat to muscle tissue) can one expect to lose on a high-intensity weight program combined with aerobic training? 


You have asked a question that can't be answered here. The reason it can't be answered is because you don't throw into consideration the dietary factor that is happening. What type of bodyweight can one expect to lose on a high-intensity training program combined with aerobic training? Well, it depends on how many calories a person is taking in and the percentage of net fat to muscle tissue loss will also depend on what kind of diet a person is taking in, not only that but what their metabolic rate is and other genetic determinants, that make a pat answer to this question impossible. 


When a bodybuilder (male or female) is Losing Bodyfat, at what point of an existing bodyfat percentage (begins with 18% bodyfat and is nearing 9%) does this person actually go from losing subcutaneous fat (fat between the muscle and skin) to losing intercellular bodyfat (fat that is in the muscle fiber itself)? 


The loss of fat is always subcutaneous and intracellular. It's not one or the other, and it's not that we have a certain point where we switch over, as you are in a time of caloric deprivation and these sources of energy are going to be drawn upon from all fat stores, and these can be stored subcutaneously or intracellularly. I'll tell you, subcutaneous fat stores immediately under the skin are some of the slowest to go, though, and hence you have a lot of people who may have been 18, even 30% bodyfat, and they get their bodyweight maybe down to 8 or 10% bodyfat. Well, they have a real problem -- loose skin and a lot of adipose tissue under it. 

Those are called the apparent cells, and those things, they don't ever really totally go away. The number of cells remains relatively constant so that is one of the problems you get into when you have a person who used to be very overweight and then lost a bunch of it. 

Incidentally, there isn't that much intracellular muscle fat that is in the muscle cell fiber itself; we don't get much of that. That statement there is unsubstantiated; there is a degree of it. In a very obese person, there is a greater degree than there is in a muscular person, but most of the fat stores are subcutaneous, and that's the main problem, because you can remove all those fat subcutaneous stores but you will still have the apparent cells, and the apparent cells are the original cells that you had when you were a kid that you hypertrophied to begin with. Even though they are in a state of deprivation, they're still there. 

A Final Comment 

I am sorry I couldn't give more specific answers to some of the questions that were asked, but some of the issues within the questions didn't have any specifics. Some of my viewpoints aren't universally accepted. They are based on my personal research and view of the nutritional sciences. 

I have never done things according to what the standard view was. I am an innovator, I like to think. So I don't always accept what is written on a piece of paper as truth and I think this is of prime concern to anyone that's going to enter into the iron game as a nutritionist, bodybuilder or strength athlete or perhaps as a personal trainer or bodybuilding coach. Having said that, I hope that you enjoyed reading this information as much as I have had in writing it. 


Check Out Dennis' Training Reports At www.dennisbweis.com! 


yukonherc@kpunet.net

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Stemming from the frequent observation that cigarette smokers tend to maintain lower body weights than their non-smoking counterparts, it is an intriguing idea that by using a nicotine product (such as a patch or gum), one could experience beneficial body composition effects while avoiding the carcinogenic dangers of cigarette smoke. In this issue of "Chemically Correct," we take an in-depth look at the science behind one of the world's most popular drugs. 

Chemistry 

Despite having similar stimulant qualities, nicotine has a distinct chemical structure from the phenylethylamines such as amphetamine and ephedrine. As opposed to these substances, nicotine is comprised of a pyridine ring connected to a pyrrolidine ring. There are two stereoisomers, (-)-nicotine being the active isomer and having the most affinity for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChr). Because nicotine is a weak base, it requires an alkaline environment to cross cell membranes (1). 



This explains the tobacco companies' use of the controversial "ammonia chemistry" to boost cigarette impact. What makes the chemical structure of nicotine particularly fascinating (or not particularly so, depending how you look at it) is its resemblance to the acetylcholine (ACh) molecule. Because of ACh's flexibility as a molecule, it can be configured to resemble nicotine. Both the pyridine nitrogen of nicotine and the keto oxygen of ACh are electron donors, while the positive charge of nicotine's pyrrolidine nitrogen is similar to that of ACh's nitrogen. Using computer graphics, the two molecules are even super-imposable (2). 

Pharmacology 

Although the pharmacological effects of nicotine span across multiple receptor systems, the primary mode of action is elicited through nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChr's) (3). These receptors are divided into subunits: alpha2-alpha7 and beta2-beta4. It is known that nicotine binds with the highest affinity to the alpha4beta2 subunit, with an affinity approximately 13 times greater than ACh itself (4). 

While the alpha4beta2 subunit appears to be responsible for most of nicotine's pharmacological effects-as determined by the use of genetically altered knockout mice-other subtypes may contribute as well. Particularly, alpha6 and beta3 impact sensitization and reinforcement of nicotine and alpha7 for nicotine's anti-anxiety effect (5,6). But the pharmacology does not end there, as it's not merely the nAChr subtype that does all the magic, but rather the cascade of events that occur once that particular subtype is triggered. This includes nicotine's effects on other neurotransmitter systems. 

Dopamine 

Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area and the substantia nigra have nAChr's (particularly the alpha4beta2 and alpha3beta2 subunits) located on their nerve terminal membranes; when these receptors are stimulated, dopamine is secreted (7,8,9,10). Nicotine-evoked glutamate release can enhance such secretion due to the presence of NMDA receptors on the dopamine terminals (11, 12). However, despite such robust dopamine release, overflow of dopamine in areas of the brain like the nucleus accumbens is tightly controlled by the dopamine re-uptake system (13). 

 In order to overcome such an effect, a dopamine re-uptake inhibitor might prove very useful in potentiating nicotine's dopaminergic action. But even without a re-uptake inhibitor, chronic use of nicotine by itself can increase dopamine overflow (14), and it is the NMDA receptors that are at least somewhat responsible for this sensitization mechanism (15). Another sensitization mechanism could be induced via nicotine's upregulation of D1, D2, and D3 receptor mRNA (16,17). 

A third mechanism by which dopamine release is sensitized by chronic nicotine treatment is through increased tyrosine hydoxylase expression. Nicotine increases tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA in the brain, as well as the actual tyrosine hydroxylase protein (18). Since tyrosine hydroxylase is the limiting factor in the conversion of L-tyrosine to dopamine, nicotine should result in increased synthesis of dopamine, assuming that L-tyrosine intake is adequate. And indeed, when L-tyrosine and nicotine are administered together in-vitro to human lymphocytes, synthesis of L-Dopa and norepinephrine commences. (19) 

Monoamine Oxidase type B (MAO-B) is one of the enzymes responsible for degrading dopamine. It's been known for some time that cigarette smoke has the capability of irreversibly inhibiting MAO-B (20). And while nicotine metabolite concentration is inversely proportional to MAO-B levels, nicotine itself does not inhibit MAO-B (21). Inhibition of MAO-B compounded by nicotine's effects on dopamine release is probably one of the primary reasons why cigarettes are so rewarding and might add to their effect on body composition. In order to potentiate nicotine's dopaminergic action without smoking, one could take the MAO-B inhibitor l-deprenyl. Also, since l-deprenyl has dopamine re-uptake blocking activity (22), it would provide a double mechanism for making nicotine's effect on dopamine more pronounced. 

Noradrenaline 

As with dopamine, nicotine elicits noradrenaline secretion by binding to nAChr's on noradrenergic neurons (3). Chronic nicotine administration will cause sensitization to its effects on NA release through increased expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (23,18). An indirect mechanism by which nicotine releases NA is through secretion of GABA (24). But that doesn't make sense, you might assert, as GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, right? Right; but by some unknown mechanism, activation of the GABA-A receptor stimulates NA release (25). Effects of nicotine on GABA will be discussed later. 

Eventually, with chronic nicotine infusion, NA overflow is abolished, alluding to the possibility of receptor desensitization (3). Interestingly enough, this phenomenon might add to the reinforcing effects of nicotine use. Because NA release is a component of the response to stressful stimuli (26), halting NA overflow during a stressful situation would explain once more the calming effects of smoking (3, 27). 

Serotonin 

Nicotine increases the release of serotonin in various parts of the brain, though to a lesser extent than the catecholamines. Mixed evidence exists to whether serotonergic neurons express nAChr's (28,29). Instead, nicotine induced 5-HT release has been attributed to stimulation of nicotinic receptors located in the dorsal raphe nucleus, and such stimulation appears to be directly responsible for the anxiolytic effects of nicotine (28,30). 

Serotonin release is controlled by several serotonergic-nicotinic interactions. One such example is that while stimulation of nicotinic receptors leads to 5-HT release (31), stimulation of 5-HT1A receptors will inhibit ACh release (33). Nicotine also increases serotonin transporter density-another inhibitory response to increased 5-HT release (34). 

Since this is the case, one might wonder whether it would make sense to add an SSRI to a nicotine regimen? The answer is probably not; sensitization to nicotine's stimulatory effects has been shown to be blocked by increasing 5-HT levels with the SSRI citalopram, known more commonly as Celexa (35). Finally, in food-deprived rats, tryptophan hydroxylase and serotonin synthesis is upregulated by nicotine (36). This is probably a very important mechanism by which nicotine's exerts its appetite and weight-controlling effects. 

GABA 

Those who can remember their elementary school D.A.R.E seminar ("Drugs Are Really Expensive" was our favorite interpretation) might recall that nicotine fell under the category of "stimulants." Such a designation baffled many of us given that most people report they get a calming effect from smoking. So which is it: a stimulant, or a relaxant? So far we've mentioned two mechanisms by which nicotine might exert anxiolysis: desensitizing the noradrenergic response to stress and via the increase of serotonin release. The third mechanism by which this may occur is GABAergic in nature. 

GABAergic neurons express nAChr's (37), and when stimulated by nicotine increase GABA release (38). Nicotine also decreases the expression of the GABA-B1 receptor, which serves as an inhibitory mechanism on GABA release and thereby minimizes negative feedback (39). 

Leptin and Neuropeptide Y 

While evidence of increased dopaminergic and serotonergic activity does much to explain nicotine's effects on body weight and food intake, such a discussion would not be complete without reference to the food intake regulators leptin and neuropeptide Y (NPY). A detailed discussion of these two peptides is beyond the scope of this article; I refer those interested in a comprehensive review of the physiology and function behind these hormones to Par Deus' "Leptin: The Next Big Thing" series. 

It would be wonderful if we could conclude that nicotine raises leptin levels, lowers neuropeptide Y levels, and in turn decreases appetite and body weight. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, nicotine's effects on these hormones are unclear, and often conflictual. Several studies have demonstrated that smokers have lower leptin levels than non-smokers (40,41,42), while others have established that nicotine raises leptin concentrations (43). In obese rats, nicotine was able to lower bodyweight independent of its effects on leptin levels (44). Such contradictions are somewhat reconciled when we accept that nicotine doesn't modulate leptin levels per se, but rather increases leptin receptor expression and sensitivity (44,45). 

Similar confusions arise with Nicotine's effects on NPY, as nicotine has been shown to both increase (45) and decrease (46) NPY expression in the hypothalamus. These contradictions are slightly easier to digest when we take into account the conditions in each study. NPY expression decreased under food deprivation and higher nicotine doses (12mg/kg in rats), while it increased with lower doses of nicotine (2-6mg/kg). Interestingly, despite the scenario in which NPY expression was increased, anorectic effects were still prevalent, which suggests that nicotine's effects on NPY might be the product of a desensitization phenomenon (47). 

Steroidogenesis 

From a hormonal perspective, nicotine is attractive to male athletes because it can lower estrogen levels by competitively inhibiting the aromatase enzyme (48-52). Also beneficial might be the observation that in dogs, nicotine inhibits 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, preventing metabolism of DHT to a less potent androgen (53). While theoretically, this would allow one to gain increased benefits from DHT, it might also potentiate DHT's negative effects on the prostate and hairline. 

Unfortunately, beyond individual inhibition of enzymes, nicotine and its metabolite cotinine appear to have a largely negative effect on steroidogenesis. Both nicotine and cotinine have been implicated in decreasing testosterone synthesis in rodent leydig cells (54,55). This decrease might be due to nicotine's effect on increased ACTH release, leading to increased circulating coritcosteroids, which have been known to alter sex hormone synthesis. While the in vivo action of nicotine on sex steroids might be less pronounced (55), those using nicotine with the purpose of aromatase inhibition should be aware of its other effects on steroidogenesis. 

nAChr Desensitization or Upregulation? 

In most neurotransmitter systems, chronic administration of an agonist results in receptor desensitization; this is not surprising in view of the body's tendency towards homeostasis. At first glance, nicotinic receptors appear to be no exception in this regard, given that overnight exposure to nicotine does indeed cause desensitization (59). 

However, with chronic nicotine exposure, it appears that nicotinic receptors, particularly the alpha4beta2 subtype, undergo what is termed "functional upregulation." It is proposed that with chronic exposure, the number of high affinity versus low affinity receptors for nicotine actually increases, causing enhanced synaptic transmission of neurotransmitters (60). This upregulation could help elucidate nicotine's sustained effect on body weight, as well as its addictive qualities. 

Mechanisms of Nicotine Addiction 

In developed countries, it is estimated that tobacco use is the leading single cause of premature death (63). The irony of this statistic is that in developed countries, we are constantly being badgered about the dangers of tobacco use. In the end, the rewarding characteristics that tobacco and nicotine exert upon our neurochemistry are enough to overpower any voice of reason. So what's going on here? 

Enhancement of dopaminergic activity is considered the universal trademark shared by addictive drugs. When dopamine transmission is impaired, animals will no longer self-administer addictive drugs, including nicotine (64). As we've already discussed, nicotine not only causes dopamine release but also increases the concentration of various dopamine receptors and induces glutamate release, sensitizing the dopaminergic response overtime. Add functional upregulation to the mix, and not only is the dopaminergic response to nicotine robust, it only gets better with continued use. 

Putting dopamine aside for a minute, often overlooked is the role of serotonin in drug addiction. Serotonin is intimately involved with our ability to feel satiated as well as control impulsive behavior. Depletion of serotonin levels causes an increase in impulsive behavior as well as a tendency to prefer small immediate rewards to larger delayed rewards (65). It is hypothesized that nicotine may cause a shift in the "balance of power" by increasing dopamine function while simultaneously decreasing serotonin function (66). This hypothesis is supported by the observation that in the frontocortio and limbic areas of the brain, chronic nicotine exposure causes increased dopamine and reduced serotonin levels (67). 

Related to impulsive behavior are nicotine's effects on the GABA system, which could theoretically lead to behavioral disinhibition, similar to alcohol. In context, "behavioral disinhibition" means that even when we know we shouldn't smoke, we reach for the cigarette anyway. The bottom line is that nicotine is so addictive not only because it effectively activates the reward centers of our brain (dopamine), it also partially impairs our decision-making ability through its actions on 5-HT and GABA. 

Because the dynamics of nicotine addiction span across more than one receptor system, treatment for nicotine addiction should be just as complex. Despite the fact that SSRI's by themselves do little to aid in smoking cessation (80), there is some evidence that they might be of benefit when used in conjunction with transdermal nicotine (81). Thus, a complete "shotgun approach" to quitting nicotine (in whatever form) would include the use of proven effective dopaminergics such as bupropion and/or deprenyl (82,83) along with an SSRI. 

Toxicity 

Neurotoxicity 

Two opposing concepts confound the issue of nicotine's neurotoxicity: nicotine has a protecting effect in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease due to antioxidant properties (68), yet can induce cognitive impairments in the offspring of smoking mothers from oxidative cellular injury (69). So is nicotine neurotoxic? At first glance, it would appear that the answer is yes, since nicotine can decrease glutathione levels and increase oxidative markers such as malondialdehyde, lactate dehydrogenase, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide ion (69,70). 

However, evidence of increased oxidative stress is only evident when high dose nicotine is administered (1mM or 162mg and up). Lower dose nicotine appears to have free radical scavenging effects and protects against lipid peroxidation (71). It is also this "lower dose nicotine" (.1mM or 16mg) that most smokers are using, and in these quantities it seems to be protective against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease (72). 

Cardiotoxicity 

Carbon monoxide and other components of cigarette smoke are thought to pose a larger threat to cardiovascular health than nicotine administered on its own (73). However, given nicotine's stimulant profile, it's no surprise that it has several cardiovascular effects on its own. By inducing the release of vasopressin, nicotine causes constriction of vascular beds in the skin (74). In other parts of the body, such as skeletal muscle, vasodilation occurs due to increased cardiac output and epinephrine release (75). 

In animals, nicotine has the ability to increase platelet aggregability, possibly by inhibiting the prostaglandin protacylin, which is an antiplatelet aggregation factor (76,77). While this might appear to pose a threat to cardiovascular health by increasing the risk for blood clots, human snuff users (who generally do not suffer the cardiovascular risks of smokers) show no evidence of platelet activation (77). Similar discrepancies between human and animal studies exist for nicotine's effect on cholesterol profiles. Squirrel monkeys show increased levels of LDL when administered nicotine (78), while humans do not (79). 

Overall, adverse cardiovascular effects stemming from nicotine use derived from sources other than smoking is in humans far from conclusive. 

Nicotine Delivery Systems 

Cigarette 

The nicotine content in cigarettes varies widely depending upon brand, but usually averages around 1mg per cigarette (56). The actual amount absorbed upon smoking will depend upon how the cigarette is smoked, as well as the presence and amount of other added ingredients. Compared to other delivery systems, nicotine levels from cigarettes peak within minutes and fall shortly thereafter. Because the half-life of nicotine is around 2 hours, those who smoke more than one cigarette over the course of a day will demonstrate accumulated nicotine levels in their plasma (1). 

It should be noted that the highly addictive quality of cigarettes lies not within its nicotine content, but rather its nicotine pharmacokinetics. Cigarettes provide an immediate jolt of nicotine to the CNS, resulting in almost instant gratification. Delaying nicotine gratification with the use of slower delivery mechanisms should aid minimizing addictive potential. 

Oral Snuff and Nicotine Gum 

 Since both snuff and gum are absorbed from the oral mucosa, they have similar pharmacokinetics. Levels of nicotine peak at 30 minutes and slowly decline over 2 hours. Nicotine gum comes in 2mg and 4mg strengths and has absorption rates of 53% and 72%, respectively (58). Oral snuff tobacco is comprised of approximately 0.4% nicotine (58). Of course, "pinch" size will vary from person to person, but 2.5g caused a peak nicotine level of around 15ng/ml, similar to that of cigarettes and gum (57). 

Nicotine Patch 

Nicotine patches come in varying strengths, from 14-22mg, delivering nicotine at a constant rate of approximately .9mg per hour; levels peak at anywhere from 4 to 9 hours after initial administration (3). 

Nicotine Nasal Spray 

Nicotine nasal spray delivers 0.5mg to each nostril in a single dose, and levels peak within 5-10 minutes (3). 

Conclusions 

Given Nicotine's pharmacology, it appears to be most useful during periods of intense dieting. By enhancing the actions of dopamine, serotonin and leptin, as well as partially inhibiting the actions of neuropeptide Y, nicotine can partially deceive the body into thinking it is fed-thereby decreasing appetite, mobilizing fat, and preserving lean body mass-even in the presence of a calorie deficit. 

So, how would one ideally use nicotine while dieting? From our review of the literature, we know that higher doses are more effective than lower doses at regulating various factors such as neuropeptide Y (47). However, given that these values are based on mg/kg in rats, establishing conversion rates for optimal human usage is a little tricky. Nonetheless, if we return to our original observation that smokers generally weigh less than non-smokers, and suppose that a "smoker" uses approximately 20mg of nicotine a day (about 20 cigarettes, one pack), we can conclude that 20mg might be an appropriate dosage. 

It should also be noted that there are a number of other compounds that might compliment a nicotine regimen. Already mentioned has been deprenyl (5-10mg a day), the use of which is aimed at potentiatiating dopaminergic activity. Similarly, caffeine can sensitize the dopaminergic response to nicotine (61). Because nicotine upregulates tyrosine hydroxylase while concurrently inducing catecholamine release, supplementing with L-tyrosine would ensure ample substrates for neurotransmitter formation. Finally, Spook suggested the addition of calcium supplements, as nicotine induces the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which can deplete intracellular calcium stores (62). 

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79. Thomas GAO, Davies SV, Rhodes J, Russell MAH, Feyerabend C, Sawe U. Is transdermal nicotine associated with cardiovascular risk? J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1995;29:392-6.
80. Sellers , EM, Naranjo, CA and Kadlec, K, 1987. Do seretonin uptake inhibitors decrease smoking? Observations in a group of heavy drinkers. J Clin Psychopharmacol 7, pp. 417-420.
81. Killen , JD, Fortmann, SP, Schatzberg, AF, Hayward, C, Sussman, L, Rothman, M, Strausberg, L and Varady, A, 2000. Nicotine patch and paroxetine for smoking cessation. J Consult Clin Psychol 68, pp. 883-889.
82. Martinez-Raga J, Keaney F, Sutherland G, Perez-Galvez B, Strang J. Treatment of nicotine dependence with bupropion SR: review of its efficacy, safety and pharmacological profile. Addict Biol. 2003 Mar;8(1):13-21
83. Houtsmuller EJ, Thornton JA, Stitzer ML. Effects of selegiline (L-deprenyl) during smoking and short-term abstinence. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2002 Sep;163(2):213-20. 

Andrew Novick


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

The Question:

The holidays can be tough on your physique. When there are tons of candy, eggnog, and homemade pie right in your face, it's hard to resist.

How can someone follow a proper diet throughout the holidays?

What are the foods you want to avoid? Describe in detail what foods would be good to have during the holidays? Why?

What is the best way (if any) to use junk food as an advantage?

Bonus Question: Do you purposely bulk or cut during the holidays? Why or why not? What are the benefits to it?

Show off your knowledge to the world!

The Winners:


perldog007 View Profile 
mivi320 View Profile 
DSM18 View Profile


Prizes:

1st place - 75 in store credit.
2nd place - 50 in store credit.
3rd place - 25 in store credit. 

To use your credit, e-mail Will @ will@bodybuilding.com for more info.


1st Place - perldog007
How Can Someone Follow A Proper Diet Throughout The Holidays?

Let's consider some diverse approaches. You have heard it a million times before, so once more probably won't result in your demise: Everybody is different. The three methods presented here should provide you with a starting point for your own unique strategy.


The "Richard Baldwin Method"


 We know that Bodybuilding.com writer Richard Baldwin is tough when it comes to his holiday diet. According to Diane, his big holiday indulgence is a little cranberry sauce1. Approach one shall be designated the "Richard Baldwin method".

This is a hard man folks, and his results cannot be refuted. Looking at his pictures leaves no doubt. Richard Baldwin keeps his diet clean at all times and stays in great shape without cardio. His approach could be summed up as, "what holiday?" For body builders and others like Mr. Baldwin, a celebration is no reason to destroy the temple of their body.

I can think of a million objections to the Richard Baldwin approach. I cannot argue with the results. Richard looks great and the discipline required for this cannot be isolated to diet. This kind of dedication has to carry over to other areas of life and sport.


The Zig-Zag Method


 Tom Venuto's "Burn the fat, Feed the muscle" is one of my favorite diet books. Using his zig-zag approach your respondent lost forty pounds of fat and put on about ten pounds of muscle (1/2 inch gained on biceps flexed) in less than four months. The zig-zag approach pays some homage to our evolution and the circadian cycle.

Humans have not had a steady supply of food for very long in our evolutionary history. In the sixties, when this writer was a lad and my parents were professional actors, I encountered all sorts of starving artists who often went without food. The situation in that cash-strapped community probably hasn't changed much. In the great depression many did not get daily bread.

The point of all this nostalgic rambling is to illustrate that a steady supply of food has not been the norm during human evolution. Our bodies evolved on feast or famine. We ate after a good harvest or hunt, and listened to growling bellies when times were tough. The zig-zag method of cycling high and low calories exploits this fact.

By alternating high and low calorie days we prime the hormones to burn fat and feed muscle. Everyone who has been on a calorie restricted diet knows that weight loss will be dramatic at first. For a short time you will feel energized and vital as the pounds drop off. Then you will hit a plateau as your metabolism lowers your burn rate. Some serious muscle can be lost this way. Fat loss slows after about fourteen days on this type of program.

Conversely, anybody who has been on a serious post season binge has seen the other side. You feel great and put on some muscle for about two weeks. The period of calorie restriction primed your anabolic pump to put out some serious hormones.

When you overate you gave your body what it needed to make the hormones and the muscles. This effect was diminished after a short time and your body started to put on fat.

By alternating between high and low calorie days you can take advantage of these hormonal cycles. Tom recommends staying low calorie for no more than three days. Most folks can diet for three days.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Biorhythms: How They Can Control Bodybuilding Success. 
Devices we cannot check, but which have implications in terms of how our lives are governed, are our internal biological clocks. These clocks signal various physiological changes that take place in our body. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



Let's say your maintenance calorie level is 2800 calories per day. Granny puts on a mean feast and you want to have around 6000 calories on turkey day. 2200 calories per day three days before and three days after will keep you on the money. This method lets you stay lean while uncle Fred just keeps on getting fatter.

The "Burn the fat, Feed the Muscle" zig-zag method lets you turn holiday feasting into a vital part of your program. Zig-Zag can be used for bulking as well. A couple of low calorie days after three high calorie days keeps fat gain to a minimum. As long as your aggregate calories are above maintenance or below you will lose or gain accordingly.


The "Warrior Diet"


 For most bodybuilders, the above methods will hold more appeal than the next method. Looking around the discussion boards, not everybody who comes to Bodybuilding.com is looking to get into posing shape. Some of us are overweight and are first trying to get into passable shape. Those of us in that category might be looking at everything that can help.

A very interesting article is Mike Mahler's interview with Ori Hofmekler. Ori's book was also a great read. Paying homage to evolution, circadian rhythms, romanticism, and the ideal of the warrior instinct, the "Warrior Diet" is fascinating as a concept. This book will challenge your core beliefs.

The Warrior Diet is basically undereating during the day, and feasting at night. When underfeeding, the body eliminates waste. Underfeeding stabilizes insulin and primes the hormones for protein efficiency and maximal uptake. This is like doing a "zig-zag" mini cycle every day.

Ori tells us that alternating high and low carb days can be a good idea. The book tells you what you can eat during the day, and gives you a good order for consuming various foods during the evening feast.

The Warrior Diet seems custom made for getting through the holidays. Under this plan you fast or under eat during the day, do your workout in the evening, and then relax with a big meal. Perfect for the holidays. Before and after the days of meals with high carbs, you would go low carb.


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Many bodybuilders will not go with this plan, and Ori admits that he is not a body builder and doesn't think that it is the best plan for optimal mass. For those who are here to lose a significant amount of fat, it may be worth looking into. The plan is very flexible and gives you something most diets don't, freedom. If you like to read, the book is worth the price.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. All three of these men are past the hormonal advantages of youth, and they all look great.


What Are The Foods You Want To Avoid? Describe In Detail What Foods Would Be Good To Have During The Holidays? Why?

The fundamentals apply here as is usually the case. Unhealthy trans fats and highly refined carbs would be at the top of the list to avoid. This is where the holidays get us into trouble.

Many otherwise wholesome foods are made deadly with traditional recipes. Our beloved sweet potatoes are smothered in melted marshmallows. Marshmallows are no longer made from the mallow plant, modern versions are pure sugar. Green beans, another body building staple, are great until you drown them in cream of mushroom soup concentrate and top them with French fried onions.

Gravies thickened with a roux are a double whammy of fat and refined carbs. The desserts of the season tend to be laden with refined carbs in the form of sugar. Holiday candies should be limited. Alcoholic beverages are another temptation. Abstain if you cannot restrain. 

 What Is Roux?
Roux is a cooked mixture of flour and fat used as a thickening agent in a soup or a sauce.   



The above should be avoided because they will detract from your program. Some saturated fat and protein are nothing to run from. We need them to produce testosterone.

The rule of thumb does not change for the holidays. Any whole foods, fresh salad, and foods without added fat or sugar should be the first choice.

If you are getting into the kitchen you can exercise some control. Stuffing with whole wheat bread. Broth with the fat skimmed off can be thickened with corn starch or arrow root for gravy. Steamed vegetables can be colorful and healthy eye appeal on your platter. Websites for diabetics have some interesting low glycemic index recipes for the holidays.


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If not cooking, look for the foods closest to the natural state. No different from any other day. I would be looking for fowl or roast before a processed ham. Regular green beans, roasted potatoes, salad.

Sticking to your basics as much as possible will minimize any damage. I am going for lots of turkey, skipping dressing and gravy, and looking for side dishes that haven't been drowned in sugar and added fat. For egg nog, my post workout shakes will be 1% milk with egg nog flavored Muscle Milk.

On the holidays themselves, I may have a small dessert if there is a low sugar version available. I will avoid the second slice with coffee after and the leftovers.


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If I am going somewhere to eat (in-laws) where fibrous carbs will be hard to find, I will have a big raw salad before I head over.

By concentrating on whole foods and looking for complex and fibrous carbs the holidays can help instead of hurting. Turkey is not a bad food; it's the stuffing and the gravy that give you that Rosie O'Donnell look.

Like any other time, you need your protein, complex and some simple carbs, and good fats. Nothing in this world is perfect. Make the whole natural foods your priority and the processed sweetened treats the exception.

RATIO OF PROTEIN/CARBS/FATS CALCULATOR 


Enter your weight-gain caloric intake (in kcals) and press "Calculate".
Gaining Caloric Intake:

  kcals





Your Daily Ratios Are: 
Low Carbs: High Carbs: 
Protein (35%) =  Protein (20%) =  
Carbs (45%) =  Carbs (65%) =  
Fats (20%) =  Fats (15%) =  





What Is The Best Way (If Any) To Use Junk Food As An Advantage?

The occasional deep fried or sugary morsel can be used as a "cheat food". The physiological and psychological advantages are too well known to beat that horse again.

The law of caloric balance always applies. If you do a good job on your cardio and control your intake, then a cheat food that does not completely undo your progress is called for.

Let's say you do the lifecycle at the gym for cardio. Burn another 50 calories for forty workouts and that equals 2000 calories. Now you can have two 1000 calorie deserts and it won't make you gain any weight. Since you added cardio these two deserts could have arguably been attributed to increasing your overall fitness. Hmmmm.


RELATED ARTICLE 
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[ Click here to learn more. ] 




Bonus Question:
Do You Purposely Bulk Or Cut During The Holidays? Why Or Why Not? What Are The Benefits To It?

Tough one here. In the past I have always approached the holidays with the stated goal of maintaining weight or cutting. This has normally resulted in exceeding the average weight gain of eight to twelve pounds over the season.

This year, I am going for at least five pounds of weight gain and challenging myself to keep it as clean as possible. If I managed to gain five pounds of muscle, without adding any fat, my waist measurement would stay the same or go down slightly and my arms would be about 1/4 inch bigger2. There is an ambitious goal.

In reality, a 2:1 ratio of losing fat to muscle or gaining muscle to fat is about the best the non-steroid athlete can hope for3. Some up and down will be required, but it can be done.

I think one benefit to bulking during the Holiday will be giving in to the human desire to seek pleasure. Taking advantage of the traditional abundance to put on some muscle is another. Besides, every diet special on television will talk about how to maintain your weight or lose weight during the holidays. Do you really want to follow the talking heads of the metro sexual culture?

Ranger Rick says always drink upstream of the herd. Useful advice on the trail of life as well.

Thank you for reading, AMF! (Adieu Mon Frere)

References:


Cardio Myths and Facts by Babyboomers. 
Strength Coach Charles Poloquin cited by Mike Mahler in "The Compound Solution Program for Puny Arms." 
Get Ready To Grow Big Time by Bill Phillips, interview with TjorgBjorg Akerfledt in MM2K.


2nd Place - mivi320


The month of November represents the beginning of giving thanks and celebrating with your loved ones. The month of November also signifies the start of holiday parties, large feasts, and decadent desserts. During the months of November and December, scrumptious indulgences and large quantities of food become common in our lives - causing a dreadful dieter. However, it doesn't have to be this way for the dieter. 


How Can Someone Follow A Proper Diet Throughout The Holidays?

Consider the holiday dinners and high-fat goodies as cheating with a purpose. As bodybuilders and fitness fanatics, we workout regularly and follow strict diets. We generally live much more healthy and fit lifestyles than others. Therefore, we should use our healthy lifestyles to our advantage; an active and fit lifestyle enables you to indulge into your favorite holiday treats in moderation!

Whether it is your mother's stuffing, your grandmother's mincemeat pie, or your aunt's sweet potato casserole, feel free to indulge a little. Besides, the holidays only come around once a year.

However, the social nature of these large dinners and feasts can cause you to overeat, and conclusively overpower your will. So just remember, the key to following a proper diet throughout the holidays is to eat in moderation.


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If you happen to fail to abide by the principle of eating in moderation, don't worry. We exercise regularly, remember [(you do exercise don't you?)]? Doing some extra cardiovascular activities around the holidays will beef up your metabolism (allowing you to burn more of what you eat), and keep you in check.

Cardio doesn't have to be boring, either. Personally, I can't stand the treadmill. Cardiovascular activity can be fun, such as playing some flag football with the guys in the park, playing a pick up game of basketball, and even chasing the kids around! Cardio can be fun too, as long as it gets you moving and your heart rate going!


What are the foods you want to avoid? Why?

Again, everything can be eaten in moderation. However, foods that have been heavily processed and full of trans-fat and should be eaten in limited quantities - as they are generally not good for your overall health and your heart. These foods are typically high-glycemic and cause a rapid increase in insulin levels.

High insulin levels can make you very hungry, which in turn will cause you to eat more. Therefore, these heavily processed and trans-fat laden foods should be eaten in limited amounts.

Alcohol should be avoided also, as liquid calories can add up very fast, and don't provide the satiety of a meal or holiday treat. In addition to alcoholic beverages containing plenty of calories, they can also skew your perception of how much and what kind of foods you're indulging in.


Describe in detail what foods would be good to have during the holidays? Why?

Just because it's the holidays, doesn't mean that we should refrain from our typical "bodybuilding friendly foods" - natural, wholesome, nutrient rich foods should be eaten as well. Although the holidays offer delicious treats, they also offer nutritious foods.

Sweet potatoes, vegetables, salads, turkey, rice, fruits, and whole wheat grains are just some of the many bodybuilding staples that the holidays have to offer. These foods are great to have during the holidays, as they will not cause any damage to your diet.


Recipes



If you happen to be preparing the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, usual high-fat and sugar coated goodies can be made healthy with the help of these recipes:

 Pumpkin Pie 

 Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tbsp apple juice
2 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 egg yolk
2 large egg whites
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 9" pie plate or tin with vegetable spray. In a medium bowl, mix together crumbs, juice and butter until moistened. Press mixture evenly into bottom and sides of pie plate. Bake 15 minutes, until golden. Cool.

Place filling ingredients in a food processor (or use an electric mixer) and pulse a few times until just blended and smooth. Pour filling into cooled pie shell. Bake 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve warm, with or without a dollop of whipped cream.

 Stuffing with Cranberries 

Ingredients:
4 cups whole wheat bread cubes
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup cranberries, chopped
1 cup whole water chestnuts
1 cup chopped apple

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine and cook the chopped celery and onion in the chicken broth until tender, in a large skillet. Remove from heat. Combine the bread cubes, chopped parsley, tarragon, paprika, nutmeg, chopped cranberries, water chestnuts and chopped apple, in a large bowl.

Stir in the onion, celery and any remaining broth. Spray a two-quart baking dish with nonstick spray. Spoon the mixture into the dish. Cover the distance and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover the dish, and bake for 5-10 more minutes!


What is the best way (if any) to use junk food as an advantage?

Indulging in decadent holiday dishes will offer a physiological benefit, and ultimately provide you with satisfaction and satiety. Eating a strict diet for a long time causes you to forget what your favorite treats taste like. Eating the same foods over a long period of time also fails to provide you with satiety and satisfaction.

Eating junk food and holiday treats will break up the monotony of a strict diet. Eating these foods can also cause you to train harder in the gym, and power your workouts more efficiently!


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Do you purposely bulk or cut during the holidays? Why or why not? What are the benefits to it?

I purposefully bulk during the holidays, so I can indulge a bit more than I would if I were cutting. When I bulk, I eat about 3,000-3,330 calories daily - so just imagine what my Thanksgiving dinner looks like! When I cut, I generally take in about 2,500 calories, which means I can't go all out if I were bulking.

The benefits of bulking during the holidays is that the large amounts of food will promote more muscle growth, given you're training like an animal in the gym. My muscles always look much "fuller" after indulging at holiday dinners, which in turn motivates me to keep bulking!


Conclusion



Living a fit and healthy lifestyle means enjoying it with your family and loved ones. Enjoy every minute of the holidays, for they only happen once a year!

Mike


3rd Place - DSM18


The holidays can be tough on your physique. When there is tons of candy, eggnog, and homemade pie right in your face, it's hard to resist, but with a bit of self-control and also, calorie control, you can get through the holidays both enjoying yourself, and the tasty food, without loosing your physique.

The importance of eating well can't be stressed enough; it will affect you in every way, from how hard you train in the gym, how productive you are during the day and to the extent of your gains. So how do I ensure I keep up these benefits during the holiday period? Read on and find out the best ways.


How can someone follow a proper diet throughout the holidays?

It's hard, but it can be done. Here a few tips:

Learn self-control, like anything in life, moderation is good. On the other hand, overindulgence is another thing. When you have a big cake in front of you (I know the feeling), your stomach rumbles, you get the endorphin rush and you can see in your minds eye all these beautiful images - of course it isn't easy to say no.

If you can't, there are two things you can do, let yourself completely go and eat the whole cake, or have a piece in moderation, and acknowledge that any more is just going to be counterproductive, both to your physique, and enjoyment.


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Avoiding guilt: I think out all the emotions the human body can experience. This one has to be one of the most influential in terms of what extent you are able to achieve your goals. A lot of people don't realize this but guilt can be the sole cause of the reason you ended up eating, eating and eating, as well as emotional upset.

It is a powerful emotion. Don't worry if you do indulge a little, a little won't hurt anyone. Try and look at your guilt as irrational, and learn to talk back to that inner critic.


What Are The Foods You Want To Avoid? Describe In Detail What Foods Would Be Good To Have During The Holidays? Why?

It's funny actually, if you wanted a perfect job, you would have to avoid most foods. But the reality is life doesn't always put us in the perfect situations. Just accept it, and do what you can. Don't be too strict, allow yourself to enjoy the food, but be conscious of these things:

Saturated fats - These can be found in any products based on full-fat dairy like cheeses or cream in deserts, cakes and sauces, palm oil, in meats (turkey is lower in fat) and pastries. 

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Trans fats - These occur to several oils when deep fried. Steamed or boiled foods are a healthier option than deep fried stuff.

Sodium - Very hard to avoid, found in almost all cooked foods, and in high amounts. Avoid adding additional salt to salads etc.

Also, consider:

Try to eat foods in their most natural state - keep an eye on cooking methods, are they fried, steamed or baked? Is the food natural, unprocessed or raw? The more natural, the less destruction to nutrients, and generally, the less the calorie content.

The size of the meal - big meals can tend to slow you down, as anyone who has eaten a big meal has just felt like lazing around for the rest of the day or night.

Calories - Foods high in fat and simple carbohydrates are the victims here. Anything deep fried, cakes and deserts and even some homemade dishes. Be sure to control portion sizes.

Glycemic Index - the rate at which the carbohydrates are digested. High glycemic foods are associated with rapid weight gain, unbalanced insulin levels, low energy and mental concentration. I know, after I eat a high G.I. meal, I can feel tired right away because it acts on your serotonin levels, which control your sleep/wake cycle. 

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Here, try and combine fats/proteins with carbs, so eat your turkey or meat, with the side serving of salad and whatever other carb choices are on offer.

Talk to whoever is preparing the meals and find out if there are servings of food you want to eat and that they will be available on the table. I'll have a salad for vegetables, wholegrain bread for carbs and chicken or meat for protein. I know there is added salt, fat and sometimes too much carbs, but I know in the situation, at least I'm making the effort and have the self-control to do this. 

What's A Well-Balanced Meal At Christmas Dinner?

A serving of protein - the main dish at the dinner table, traditionally turkey, maybe a meat like roast beef or veal: 35-50 grams of protein.

A serving of vegetables - most times you will have a fibrous salad available, high in nutrition, phytochemicals and non-cooked, fresh vegetables: Less than 5 grams of carbs (fat is dependant on whether oil or dressing was used).

A serving of carbohydrates - balance this part of your meal so you don't overeat here. A good choice is whole meal bread, a dish with baked potatoes or some pasta or rice: 50-75 grams of complex carbohydrates.

Dessert: Choose a low sugar/low fat variety (if there is one). Maybe some fruit, if that's not to your tasting, then allow yourself to indulge in a sweet treat. Worst choices are cheesecakes, which are packed with calories and unhealthy saturated fats.

This meal ensures a healthy G.I. and is balanced and nutritious. Feel good about what you've done.


 What Does 'G.I.' Stand For Again?
G.I. is an acronym for 'Glycemic Index'.   




What Is The Best Way (If Any) To Use Junk Food As An Advantage?

Hmmm, this is a good question. There is a popular thing called a "cheat day" that people use, even body builders. This is a day you basically let go of all food responsibility and allow yourself to indulge in whatever you fancy - no restrictions, no worrying about your next meal or how many carbs or fats you are consuming.

The theory behind this "cheat day" is that by shocking your body, it will respond by not storing all those excess calories as fat, but will instead, excuse the French, be sh*t right out. The rules to the cheat day? There are none. Just enjoy yourself.


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A lot of people are turned off by the fact that they think they are putting all their hard work in calorie restriction to a halt by eating what they want, but this as I stated above, is in fact quite the opposite.

Using this approach, you are giving yourself as much as you want. So cheating during the week won't seem so enjoyable. It can be used once a week as many people do, but I personally use it every 2nd week. It is convenient because if you have a day where it's hard to eat properly, such as when going out to a function, you have the perfect excuse to avoid the stress of having to follow a diet when it's near impossible. Enjoy this approach and soon you'll probably be having a cheat day more often!


Positives/Negatives With Other Dieting Approaches To Calorie Control On The Holidays.

There are many approaches that are available. Some are productive, some not so productive, others plain right stupid. Here are a look at a couple, looking into why they are or aren't so good.

 "Warrior Approach" 

This is where you eat little through the day, and allow yourself a large meal in the final sitting of the day. This means you can what you want during Christmas dinner without having to worry.

Isn't recommended for bodybuilding, but I wouldn't recommend it for weight loss either:

Ignores your bodies need for acceptable portions of food at constant intervals during the day. Eating every 2-4 hours means you are maintaining high metabolism, keeping yourself full and away from snacks, fueling your muscles and getting your nutrition in a more balanced way.

Your body digests food more efficiently in smaller servings. Many also believe that the body can only digest 25-30 grams of protein at each sitting, regardless of whether you consume 25 or 100 grams at a meal.

Eating during the day mean you are eating and burning your calories while you are active, whereas eating at night becomes counterproductive.

It ignores the body need for both carbohydrates and fats, without these you will feel tired and grumpy, and it will affect your gains. 
 High/Low Days Approach 

Here you switch from very low to very high calorie days. This is the better of these two approaches, and is more balanced. I don't deny the hormonal advantages here, but, also consider:

The benefits towards eating an excessive amount of calories aren't anywhere as bad as the negatives towards restricting total calories. Here, your body will go into semi-starvation mode, and remember that muscles aren't the only thing protein is used for.

On a normal day you may be getting 220 grams of protein and 400 grams of carbs, on a high-calorie day (i.e. Christmas day), twice the carbs and fat (cakes, chocolates etc); it will be hard to stomach two times the protein.

This diet causes you to be less strict on your higher calorie days. It gives you an excuse to overindulge, and end up eating foods high in saturated fat, sodium and less freshly cooked protein. Doing this once a week is fine, but 3 days is excessive.

It becomes very monotonous to continue changing the amount of calories you have by the smallest amounts. 

What Are Some Better Ideas To Controlling Calories On The Holidays, And Maintaining Your Physique, While Others Are Packing On The Pounds?

As stated above, a "cheat day" can serve as very productive. Not only are you eating what you want, but you are also getting something out of it. You could have this cheat day Christmas day, then again nearly one week later on new years day. I'm an endo-mesomorph who easily gains weight, and stays at a healthy bodyweight on this approach.

At least you don't have to worry, "what will the in-laws think if I avoid there fresh apple pie?", or "Everyone's going to think I'm one of this overly strict fitness freaks", you can just eat what you want.

Another option is take one week off, not only from the dieting, but from everything including training, and anything related to body building. This is a great opportunity to "get away from it"; like a mini holiday. Freeing yourself from the responsibilities can be refreshing, and you will preserve energy, refresh your motivation levels and when you get back into the gym you will be fresh, roaring and ready to tackle whatever lies ahead.


Bonus Question:
Do You Purposely Bulk Or Cut During The Holidays? Why Or Why Not? What Are The Benefits To It?

Personally, I stay a lean 12-13 percent body most of the year and there really isn't any bulking or cutting. I know this isn't your traditional bodybuilding approach, but it works for me. I do, however put on 1 or 2 kgs over the holiday period, but that's nothing.

Should I bulk or cut over the holidays? Firstly, in the States it's winter, and a lot of people naturally prefer to cut during the summer months when there physique can be on show.

Secondly, bulking during this period probably is smarter, because regardless of how much you try and balance the "holiday food", you will probably still end up adding a couple of lbs. Why put yourself through the stress of cutting at a time when you are in an environment that is conductive to gaining?

How do I get through holidays without gaining fat? I basically use all the advice I've provided in this article. Balance is the key. If there was only one piece of advice I could give, it would be "balance".


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Tis The Season: Tips To Stay In Shape! 
You will enjoy the holiday gatherings even more when you have no feelings of guilt from over-eating and the depression some feel afterwards. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



Anything is good in moderation, a small piece of cake high in fat and sugar, or a deep-fried chicken wing with fat dripping off of it won't kill you. However, your mind can affect you - just don't feel guilty, show some self-control and enjoy your holidays!



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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Year after year, month after month, day after day, minute after minute, people are bombarded by advertisements, theories and training advice. The strong emphasis on being fit and lean is overwhelming. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



By: Clayton South

Year after year, month after month, day after day, minute after minute, people are bombarded by advertisements, theories and training advice. Constantly, pictures of super-buff athletes, promoting the latest "cutting edge" supplement or training theory, barrage members of the public. The strong emphasis on being fit and lean is overwhelming. Promoters of the theories or products in question [those with financial interest] often claim that their theories or products are "it" and will "blow away" the competition. Results and satisfaction are virtually guaranteed. 

The first rule of business is: satisfaction is never guaranteed. The second is: once you have their money, never give it back. Many unthinking and uncritical people discover these tenets only after they have spent their hard earned money on such scams. In the year 2001 more books were published than ever before. Never at any time in history had so much knowledge been available to the human race. Despite breakthroughs in nearly every field of knowledge, and despite the nature of our knowledge-saturated society, people are more frustrated now than ever before. Consumers work hard, get little, and spend much. Nothing is working. Put another way, they get little return for their investment of blood, sweat and tears. 

CURRENT PROBLEM 

At the present time "uncontrollable" disease levels have skyrocketed over the past decade. According to recent reports, 13% of children aged 6-11 and 14% of adolescents' aged 12-19 are overweight. This represents a 2-3% increase from overweight estimates of 11 percent found in the NHANES III report in 1988-1994 (Center For Disease Control and Prevention [CDCP], 1999). Sadly, between 1976-80, the prevalence of being overweight increased by nearly 200% in both children and adolescents (CDCP, 1999). 

 Amongst the adult population, figures are more dismal. According the CDCP (1999), 61% of U.S. adults are obese or overweight. In the United States, this pandemic shows indicators of record growth for the future. In other parts of the world, particularly in Asia, the problem of obesity is on the rise. In the Cook Islands 44% of women were obese in the 1960's. In the year 2000 this level rose to 57% (Easen, 2002). Despite the extensive knowledge available to our post-modern society, our problems are moving faster than we can catch them. An alarming percentage of the population is obese and out of shape; so much so that dieticians and doctors have borrowed the name of a World War II military campaign to describe their war on obesity: Battle of the Bulge. 

What's going on? How is it that despite more knowledge being available than ever before, obesity is spreading and growing? And, what don't people know that is the causing their frustration? Why all of the confusion? 

As shall be made plain in this article, obesity is a condition of mental chaos and stagnation that manifests itself in the physical world. Quite simply, obesity is a multifaceted condition consisting of emotions, behavioral patterns, errant philosophical premises (erroneous belief systems) and ignorance. After the groundwork has been established, we will discuss obesity myths and present a brief overview of endocrinology. 

We shall now discuss the above-mentioned factors in an attempt to make plain and debunk this condition. 

EMOTIONS 

The condition of obesity in an adult or adolescent devoid of health complications is a condition of cognition and emotion. It is clear that all things begin in the mind. Psychology makes plain that emotions are cognitive [as opposed to biological] in nature. A biological urge or reflex is not an emotion; simply an impulse brought about by the stimulation of neurons. An emotion is the product of a cause but is not itself a causal factor. One first has a thought about some aspect of reality and then an emotion emerges in response to the thought. 

For the benefit of the reader I have broken down the emotion cycle below: 



The amount of control one has over ones life is determinative of a person's level of self-esteem. Put another way, when one is in control of ones life, one feels well and secure. Because an obese persons low self-esteem stems from feelings of little or no control over life's "circumstances", people who are obese often experience feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and worthlessness. While this is not always the case, it is true more often than not. I have yet to hear of an obese person being overjoyed in the streets because of their condition and its resulting physical health complications. Cases of the obese being overjoyed about their condition are the exception rather than the rule. 

The emotions that one has about being obese stem not from the condition, but from thoughts of lack of control over ones life, and the contrast resulting from physical comparison beside other people. 

 As mentioned, society places heavy emphasis on being thin and lean. Advertising and the media function as the consciousness of the nation; the supplement industries $5 Billion annual sales are a testament to the desire amongst the masses to be lean and fit. Traditionally, human beings have sought to have "ideal" figures. The ancient Greeks made statues of Hercules and other gods who were muscular and lean, and science has formulated mathematical tools like the BMI [Body Mass Index] to indicate an "acceptable" and "healthy" weight range for a person based on their height and body composition. 

When obese persons compare themselves to non-obese persons it is easy to understand how discouragement about their predicament may result. With society, the media and science telling the obese how they "ought" to be rather than how they are, a sense of ostrascization occurs. Obese people become members in society rather than members of society. They become marginalized and alienated. They live on the fringe. 

Often times, obese persons will go into retreat because they feel marginalized. They will engage in behavioral patterns that are maladaptive. This phenomenon and its underlying causes will be discussed later in the article. 

Because human beings are creatures of habit, and because repetition is the mother of all skill, human beings have behavioral patterns in which they engage to seek comfort and consolation. 

BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS 

As stated, human beings are creatures of habit. Read the following scenario and contemplate whether you have heard something similar, and how closely it patterns your daily life: 

Everyday in North America and Europe millions of people arise at or before dawn and begin a day's work. They eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, drive for their morning coffee and its off to the office or factory. They work a days work, get paid a days wage, return home, eat, run some errands, watch some television, and sleep. The next day they do it all over again. 

 Describes a typical day doesn't it? For many, yes. The point is that people engage in behavioral patterns because it gives them a sense of security. In the example above, when people become ill they experience negative emotions because sickness threatens their sense of stability and security, which is based on their behavioral pattern. If one should miss too many days from work because of illness, by doing simple mental arithmetic it is easy to see how food can begin to become scarce. 

Obesity is also a behavior that, although multi-determined, is based on behavioral patterns. These patterns are the result of repetition. But why do people resort to certain behaviors? Because of the desire to gain pleasure and avoid pain. 

Earlier where we discussed emotions, we noted that thoughts are the antecedents of emotion. As also mentioned, obese persons often feel helpless, hopeless and worthless. Because cognition is the product of existence, thoughts are naturally reactions to ones environment and its happenings. In other words, you think about things happening around you because they happen. Events do not happen because you think. Reality acts upon your consciousness through transduction. 

Obese persons often avoid going out into public places like the beach where a direct comparison between their endomorphic figure and someone else's ectomorphic or mesomorphic figure may be made. Many obese people may also suffer from agoraphobia. Learn what body type you have, click here! 

One of the reasons that obese people often avoid certain social situations is because when a comparison between them and others occur they do not like their own resulting thoughts. As a result of their thoughts they may feel insecure and frightened. Therefore, their negative emotions prompt them to get out of environments where they can think negative thoughts [and experience pain] and into environments where they can think positively [and experience pleasure] Avoiding social situations, however, is not the only behavioral pattern that obese people engage in on a daily basis. 

Comfort eating [or "closet eating" as it is sometimes called] is a behavior that many obese persons engage in and is a maladaptive behavior that only compounds the very problem from which they are trying to escape. Upon analysis one may understand why comfort eating appears [from the perspective of the obese person] to alleviate the physical and psychological symptoms [emotional or physical] of obesity. 

Many foods have macronutrients that trigger specific hormonal and neurological changes and reactions in the body. For example, fatty foods help regulate brain signals across the myelin sheath and contribute to feelings of well-being. Depression from negative thoughts can lead to low energy levels [or may result from them]. 

 Carbohydrate-rich foods can provide an immediate and sustained increase in energy levels of the brain and body. Thus by eating carbohydrate rich foods the "blues" can be temporarily thwarted. It is also well established that dopamine, a neurotransmitter of the brain, is linked to feelings of pleasure-seeking behavior and feelings of reward. 

A recent study has found that by looking at food, dopamine levels in the dorsal striatum are raised (Beckman, 2002). Another study underway at the time of writing is studying a chromosome that acts on a growth-hormone receptor that stimulates hunger. This chromosome may influence hunger and the ability to exercise restraint at the dinner table (Maccarone, 2002). 

To establish a behavioral pattern a behavior must be repeated for approximately 21 days. This time period is required to "wire" the neural pathways of the brain to accommodate for the new behavior. 

For purposes of ease, visualize a steel cable. Each time a behavioral pattern is repeated and is reinforced with pleasure, the cable becomes thicker, and its influence grows. When we engage in behaviors, our neurology can undergo changes in the physical to accommodate for our experience (Kolb & Whishaw, 1998). 

Orison Swett Marden remarked "The beginning of a habit (behavioral pattern) is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, thought and act." 

However, the reverse is also true. By not doing something we can decrease the strength of behavioral patterns in our life. The adage "if you don't use it, you lose it" holds true, both with physical and mental behavioral patterns. Having counseled obese persons, and having had the opportunity to gain an understanding of behavioral patterns, the following tips to combat the behavioral pattern aspect of obesity may prove helpful: 


Use smaller plates upon which to eat. 
Put one mouth-full of food on your plate at a time. 
Eat in only one spot in the house where your only activity is eating (No TV!). 
Notice where and when you eat. 
Notice what your doing while eating. 
Whatever food you enjoy, eat only that food for an entire day and NOTHING else 
Talk with your friends about your obesity and tell them how unhappy you are with your condition. 
Change the language you use regarding eating and obesity. 
Eat a small portion and wait fifteen minutes to eat more food. 
Tips 1-2 are an attempt to limit the amount of food available to a person at one time. The pleasure of eating the small amount of food is offset by having to get up to fill the plate over and over. After a while eating becomes WORK! 

If 1-2 are not effective, eating in only one spot in the house such as the kitchen will increase feelings of isolation. Eating may become boring when one cannot watch television. Removing pleasurable activities while eating will make eating less enjoyable. 

Option 6 listed above may apply to anything. Demonstrating that "too much of a good thing is not so good" is the idea behind this tip. If you love ice cream, eat only ice cream for an entire day. After a while ice cream will start to make you feel ill. You then associate pain with eating ice cream, and you rewire your behavioral pattern. 

 The next time you may say, "Eating that ice cream made me feel ill last time, I think I wont eat as much this time." And so implementing tip 6 will reduce the amount of ice cream you will eat. Done enough times it will eliminate your ice cream habit all together. This tip may be applied to any food you are trying to stop eating. 

Option 7 involved enlisting your friends and family to act as supports for you in your endeavor to change your situation. And tip 8, language, is the most important tip on the list. 

A person's language reveals a lot about them and their motivators. For example, a person may use inclusive language when talking about the workplace ["we make" "we do"] or they may use exclusive language ["they make" "they do"]. In either case it is clear how the person views himself or herself as fitting or not fitting into the work culture. 

The same is true for obesity and eating. There is a clear difference between "plump" and "fat", "portion" and "helping", "hungry" and "starving." Noticing and changing the language you use regarding obesity and food will contribute toward achieving your specific goals; when you change language, you change thought processes. 

The final tip is very effective because it will assist you in avoiding "over-eating." The underlying science behind this recommendation is well established: there is a delay from the time food enters your stomach to where your brain signals the body that sufficient satiation has occurred to fend off hunger pains. Therefore, if one were to eat a small portion of food, then cease eating for fifteen minutes, then resume eating, the amount of food that one could consume would decrease. Over-eating results from eating beyond the amount of food your body needs to be full, simply because it takes time for the body to figure out that its full. If you keep eating and eating and do no allow for this process to occur, when it does occur you will realize you ate far too much. There are other behaviors that obese persons engage in but they are too numerous for this work. Try the tips above and see how they work in your own life. 

The thoughts of helplessness, hopelessness and worthlessness experienced by obese persons are erroneous. The reason for their prevalence amongst the obese, however, is not clear to many personal trainers, dieticians or councilors. I shall now discuss it surprisingly it involves. 

ERRONEOUS BELIEF SYSTEMS/ PHILOSOPHIES 

The ancient philosophers said "As within, so without. As above, so below", Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, "A man becomes what he thinks about most of the time" and Proverbs says "As you think, so shall you be" (Proverbs 23:7). 

The outer world was formed as a reaction to the contents of the human mind. Buildings require designs that depend upon and originate from concepts in the mind of the architect. Automobiles are designed according to blueprints, which are made from the ideas of the designer. In a similar fashion the human body can be modified according to the wishes of the owner. However, the quantitative and qualitative results obtained will be in correlation to the logic of the thoughts of the thinker. 

 If your mind is in chaos, your life will be in chaos. If your thoughts are not logical, the quality of your life will be poor and will have little cohesion. The quality of your thoughts will determine the quality of your life. Thoughts are the cause and actions are the effect of all that is. 

I mention mental chaos because people have [knowingly or unknowingly] false and chaotic philosophical systems that guide their mental lives, and mental chaos leads to physical chaos. Mental deformity leads to physical deformity. A grotesque mental form based on ignorance will manifest a grotesque physical form that is the product of that ignorance. 

For those readers who may not be familiar with philosophy, a man named Immanuel Kant was the most influential philosophical thinker since the dark ages. And, will be made plain, the ideas of his errant philosophy have had detrimental effects on society, obese persons not exempted. For those readers who are familiar with Kant it may be of surprise that the philosophy of Immanuel Kant is so far reaching that it has infiltrated every aspect of modern life. In the history of the human race there has never existed a greater author of confusion and chaos than Immanuel Kant. 

The philosophy of Kant, however, is not new. He is merely the poster boy that gave the philosophy its current name. Plato, Pythagoras, Hobbes, Leibniz and Hume also promoted the same philosophy: mysticism. 

In his book Critique of Pure Reason, Kant asked the rhetorical question "How do we know anything?" In asking this question he set to invalidate the means by which mans determines reality: Cognition via the senses. 

Instead of reason, science and objectivity, Kant argued that man could not know anything because of the limited nature of his mind. Of course, if his claims were true, the question is obvious: If man can't know anything because of the structure of his mind, how does Kant know that? And does Kant know that he doesn't know? If he can't know anything, how has he determined his own ignorance? Those questions alone ought to show how ridiculous the ideas of Mr. Kant were, and still are. 

In the book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Kantianism is summarized as follows: 

"Certain abstract conclusions are incontestable to us, but that is partly because of the nature of the human mind. If we had a different sort of mind, with a different sort of conceptual apparatus, our idea of truth and reality would be different. Human knowledge, therefore is only human; it is subjective; it does not apply to things in themselves?.Even the most meticulous proof depends on our sense of what is logical, which must depend in part on the kind of mental constitution we have. The real truth on any question is, therefore, unknowable. To know it, we would have to contact reality directly, without relying on our own logical makeup. We would have to jump outside of our own nature, which is impossible. (Peikoff, 1991) 

Again, let us return to the question of Kant when he asked, "Can we know anything?" Illustrating the purpose behind Mr. Kant's philosophy, Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead wrote: 

"..Reason can be fought with reason. How are you going to fight the unreasonable? The trouble with you, my dear, and with most people, is that you don't have sufficient respect for the senseless. The senseless is a major factor in our lives. You don't have a chance if it is your enemy." (Rand, 1943) 

This is the summation of Kant's philosophy. A fundamental hatred for the mind of man. Kant seeks to confuse the human mind with his complex, senselessness and unanswerable questions. His purpose was to overload the conceptual faculty of man with senseless, unanswerable question in an attempt to invalidate mans mind and destroy science and reason [like questions similar to Zen philosophy. i.e. what is the sound of existence happening?]. 

The invalidation of the conceptual faculty of man leads to the destruction of free will and choice. If man cannot reason or know anything, how can man choose his actions? Thus, Kantianism gives birth to Determinism, the psychology of B.F. Skinner, and to the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. 

B.F. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist. The classic experiment of "skinners box" attempted to show the effectiveness of social engineering. Behaviorism states that the behavior of animals and man are determined not by choice or reason, but by environment. Determinism states that we do nothing of free will; the universe has decided our fate and that no action is a result of free will. Psychoanalysis argues that man is subject to the demands of the ID. Freud argued that we are helpless and that "anatomy is destiny." 



Each of these examples are built upon one thing: Kantianism and the denial of the conceptual faculty of man. Each of these reduces man to a robot, helpless and groveling at the mercy of his environment and makeup. 

Christianity and other religions also contend that man cannot know anything, save only that which is revealed from the deity. Following the logic, man is subject to a God to which he must adhere without question. Ultimately the goal is to control human behavior and reduce the masses to unthinking sheep. The argument is that man is a sinner by nature and he cannot help this. What Christianity fails to mention is that the so-called "initial sin" that Adam and Eve had was a product of choice. Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil by CHOICE. They were not forced. Tricked? Yes. Forced? No. 

Returning to the subject of Determinism, the difficulty is that, in the words of John Hick, "if every thought is either rigidly or randomly determined, we could never be in a state of rationality believing that this is so! For rational believing presupposes a degree of intellectual freedom, the freedom to exercise judgment, and if we are totally determined we have no such freedom." (1999). 

The proof that Kantianism is false lies in reality; specifically mathematics and the sciences. In other words, reality destroys non-reality, or mysticism. 

 Supposing, for the moment, that Kant were correct, that we could not really know anything, some interesting questions confront us. For example, how do we know that a man is a man, and an insect and insect? How do we know that an insect is not really a man? What method have we used to distinguish the two? Cognition? According to Kant we cannot really know anything for certain. Our senses? According to Kant our senses cannot deliver to us objective reality. And, what are our senses? How have they been identified if we cannot know anything? How do we know they exist? How have we sensed our senses if our senses do not work and are not reliable? 

It is clear that, according to Kant's philosophy, he is not even able to determine what senses are, since that would require a determination on reality, which man is unable to make because he cant know anything. Thus, Kant's philosophy is destroyed by its fundamental tenets. It makes a determination and states that making determinations is not possible. It is contradictory. It is senseless. 

The chaos created by Kant gave birth to Determinism, Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism. How have these ideas contributed to obesity? IN EVERY WAY! This errant philosophical system has created confusion and ignorance! 

IGNORANCE 

If man cannot know anything, he has no control over anything. He is, therefore, helpless and hopeless. If man has no control his self-esteem is low. Therefore he feels worthless. The connection between thought, emotion and this erroneous philosophical system is clear. 

This brings us to our examination of several myths regarding obesity. We shall debunk the senseless overused catch phrases and excuses used regarding obesity. We shall bring together these myths and their philosophical underpinnings, and we shall examine them in detail. 

OBESITY MYTHS 

1. SET POINT THEORY 

Set-point-theory states that the human body has a "preferred" state of being. Put another way, according to the theory, there is an "ideal" weight for every person, and no matter what efforts are exerted the body will fight to maintain this weight. But how well does this theory stand up under scrutiny? 

The answer to this question is dependant upon your school of thought. Are you a Kantian or an Aristotelian? Kant would proclaim that some unidentified, mystical, divine force regulated your body and that its efforts to stay the same were greater than your efforts to exert change. Translation? You are helpless and groveling, without the ability to make change. In the words of Freud "Anatomy is destiny." 

Aristotle, on the other hand, would argue for science; science being the study of the physical world and its laws; of which the body is a part, and to which the body is subject. 

Not surprisingly, proponents of the set-point-theory are mostly obese people with terrible eating habits who suffer from acute ignorance concerning effective methods of goal-oriented exercise. As a result, they proclaim that "nothing works, diets don't work, its hopeless" and they give up. Usually these people go on to continue to eat the foods that made them obese in the first place. 

Many obese persons have reasoned that "somehow" they would "lose the weight" and get to be where they wanted to be. If "just enough effort" were exerted they could look "like the people in the magazines". The reasoning is that they will "by some miracle" come to look like the people in the magazines that they envy. The result of taking a mystical [unspecified] approach to training is infinite frustration. 

Fitness and bodybuilding are the scientific application of exercise. Thus, bodybuilding and fitness are predicated upon scientific, verifiable, methods to achieve certain results. The methods of application are predictable, as are the results. 

Using the Kantian system of thought, several questions confront us that we must answer. The first is totally obvious: If nothing can be accomplished despite our best efforts, what is the point of going to the gym? The second is like it: If people who go to the gym are getting results, how is it possible to get results if getting results is hopeless, because nothing can be known about the human body? 

 Results [productivity] depend on accurate knowledge of the human body's functioning, and nature. Results also depend on a systematized plan of action based on that knowledge. According to Kant and the set-point-theory this knowledge, and therefore the results derived from such knowledge, is impossible. We cannot know anything, and therefore we cannot achieve anything. Whatever we achieve is not the product of choice, reason or science, but chance or "providence." 

The key to combating Kantianism lies in an examination of REALITY and the acceptance of the data obtained by the senses. The very existence of science is a refutation to Immanuel Kant and his attack on reason and free will. 

Reality shows that millions of people engage in active lifestyles, and do so according to a systematized action. The resultsformer they get show that there must be fundamental knowledge about the human body that we understand, otherwise their plans would not be effective. 

The results of millions of hard-training former-obese persons show that there exist universal laws that apply to every human body. Certainly not everyone is "guessing" the same way, doing the same things, and getting great results for their effort. There must be something behind it. Certainly not everyone is "lucky" or "blessed." 

The mystic-Kantian approach to fitness would be: "Do I have what it takes? Do I have some undefined quality within me to muster the courage and strength to get results that I cannot know about because I cannot know anything? Can I use my mind to alter reality? Will I get lucky enough to get what I want?" 

The same people would stand in front of a flowing volcano and chant incantations to some unknown god and expect the lava and magma to stop, simply because they wished it to be so. If it did not stop they would conclude, not that temperature modifications were necessary to solidify the lava into rock, but that it was a personal failing that the lava did not stop. Maybe they just didn't "try hard enough" or "give enough effort"; maybe they didn't "have what it took" to change their circumstances. Maybe they weren't "lucky." Forget reality and its known laws; instead rely upon some unidentifiable non-reality to alter physical existence. Such people rely on information not from senses, but from mysticism. Mysticism is non-sensical in that it doesn't rely on the senses. It's little surprise that its results are non-sense in every "sense" of the word! 

 With respect to the human body, adherents of scientific principals would ask, "What is required? What methods need to be followed so that a body composition change can be elicited?" According to science, cognition and human consciousness are a result of universal existence; the existence of the universe is not the result of the mind. The mind exists as a product of the universe in that it is within the universe. Without the universe and existence, none of us would exist, and human consciousness and physical existence would cease. 

It is clear that the scientific approach makes sense. As certain as gravity effects all objects on earth so too is the human body constructed to operate by and obey physical laws. And so it does. 

The desire to be thin does not make one thin. Hoping for a "miracle" from some undefined inner source does not promise deliverance. Cardiovascular work and dietary modification are the only methods that will help one obtain the desired results. This simple truth is scientific, and operates according to established principals and practices. 

Thus, set-point-theory is the product of ignorant minds poisoned by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Set-point-theory should be disregarded as the fraud and deception it is. 

2. "I WAS NOT MEANT TO BE THIN" 

Virtually all of us, if we have been involved with fitness long enough, have heard the claim that a person wasn't "meant" to be thin. Not "meant" or "supposed so be thin", ACCORDING TO WHOM? By what method? And why? 

Usually the person making this claim goes on and on about their "frame size" and their "bone structure." The reason for this is not to convince others, but themselves. Often they will go on about how "fate" determined them to have a body size they cannot alter, and then they will refer and depend upon the set-point-theory discussed above. 

A common line used to explain obesity is "well my mother was plump, my father was plump, so that's why I am the way I am today. I can't help it." 

The logical question is: Why were your parents OBESE? Not plump, not rubenesque, not husky, not heavy-set, nor big-boned: OBESE. 

Why were your relatives OBESE? Poor eating habits? Did they sit around all of the time? And, why are you the same way? Are you lazy? Are YOUR eating habits poor because you were conditioned in your parental home to eat poorly? Did you sit around playing video games and watching TV while eating candy and drinking soda? Or were you active? Were you out enjoying your youth by playing games like hockey, soccer, basketball or football? 

 It is important to realize that responsibility begins with one: YOU. You are the means and the ends of your own life. When you say things like "My parents are the way they are so that's why I am the way I am today" you are giving control of your life to elements outside of yourself. You are operating from a position of weakness by attributing your situation to others. You are making yourself a habitual victim, and being a victim is a habit. 

You have a habit because you have a thought. No one makes you eat the things you eat. You have decided to. You have a thought and a habit because you have intended it to be there. 

Regardless of whether ones ancestors or relatives were obese, one can always choose, in the present moment, to utilize scientific principals to change ones body composition. Millions of people are changing their body composition every day. They don't make EXCUSES. They don't try to rationalize why they are HELPLESS. They get to work. They rationalize why change is possible for them. They decide, and it is so. 

The claim that some unknown force has condemned fat people to being fat is a stupid notion. No one is "meant" to be any way, except the way they CHOOSE to be. As Mark Twain remarked, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." 

The power to appear as you desire is within you, and it is accessible at any time. It involves applying scientific knowledge and principles and being intrinsically motivated. When the locust of responsibility and control has returned to you, change is possible. Not before. 

You are meant to be as you choose to be. 

3. "I CANNOT HELP IT" 

Is man doomed to pound his fists against his chest, in the darkness, like the savages? Is man doomed to live in a world he cannot understand? Is he totally helpless? People who use this excuse would have you believe so. 

Many people cite lack of willpower as the reason they are a certain way. Man is helpless; he can't choose the way he wants his body to be. Hogwash. 

Willpower is an act of volition. It implies a free mind. If willpower were not effective, groups like Alcoholics anonymous would not place such heavy emphasis on the importance of willpower in the struggle to kick an alcohol habit and addiction. Nor would anti-smoking groups. 

Unless the person using this excuse is an animal [that lacks the ability to reason and operates on reflex and biological urge] they are lying to themselves and others. If they were an animal that lacked the ability to reason they would not be able to use this excuse, since the notion of being helpless must be compared against another notion that says they CAN help it. This comparison requires reason. Something they don't have if they truly "can not help it." So the very existence of this excuse proves the contrary. 

Again, with this excuse the people are placing the power of change outside of themselves. There is "something" out there controlling them that they cannot overcome. They are "doomed" to eat poorly or always be the way they are. Again, they are making themselves a victim of some other [although they never say what] force or object. 

The Kantian origin of this pathetic excuse is easily seen. Man cannot know anything, and therefore he cannot resist something he does not know nor can he change it, since he neither knows what he is fighting against, or what the concept of resistance is. Therefore he is a robot who must act and "can't help it." 

Again this is a feeble excuse that is clearly invalid. Millions of people around the world are "helping it" every day - "it" being their own bodies. They are helping their own bodies because they are not operating from weakness and they are not resigning themselves to be a victim. 

4. DIETS DON'T WORK 

While it is true that some diets are better than others, diets seldom fail. The reason that some diets are better than others is that diets are created to operate in response to certain scientific, physiological, realities. 

 The functioning of the body's endocrine system is well documented in scientific literature. The endocrine system, which we shall discuss later, is the master system that controls the human body. It operates according to predictable, scientific, principles. 

The logical question regarding diets is this: If they do not work, why are millions of people on diets, and why do they lose significant amounts of body fat? 

A case in point comes from personal experience working with a severely obese woman. In the year 2000 I worked as a counselor to young offenders and troubled youth. I designed seminars and workshops and taught life skills. I ended up working with this woman at the facility, and eventually the subject of her obesity was discussed. 

Over the course of the summer we talked frequently about her weight issues. She was 5'4, 380lbs. In between bags of chips she went on to tell me about how she had always been on diets and none of them had worked. She told me that she only ate chips and chocolate bars "once a year" - even though once a year must have meant once per day, because that's how often she ate them. She told me that she had seen dietary specialists and nothing they had told her worked. She had been examined for medical conditions [PSOS, Diabetes, thyroidism, brain tumor] and the results were negative. She had gone through every doctor in our small town, and they had told her one thing: "It is in your head. You need to lose weight so that you can at least get your period without resorting to using hormone therapy, and so that your ankles stop swelling up when you sit down. One of these days one of those headaches you get is going to be an aneurysm, and you will die." 

Each time a doctor told her the same thing she would switch doctors, and spend hours going on a philobuster explaining to me why she was a hopeless case, that nothing could cure her. She looked to me for sympathy and validation. 

Eventually I befriended the family and would go over on occasion. During the time I bulked up I would eat pizzas and all kinds of potatoes and chicken wings. I would always order fast food when I would go over. She ordered plenty, as well. 

During the time we worked together she would go to the coffee shop and get six cookies and a large French vanilla coffee. She would also frequent McDonalds. One time while eating a super-sized McDonalds French fry and double Big-Mac she proclaimed, "I've learnt to accept my size. I know I can't lose the weight." She would then go home and make rainbow chocolate chip Smartie cakes, and would eat Pringle chips by the can. And then she would wonder why she was obese. 

Eventually my frustration mounted and I had to say something. I very candidly spoke with her and encouraged her to order a 3-month supply of a fat burning product. She did, and proclaimed that it was a "magic pill" and that she could now "eat as much" as she wanted. What seemed like a small victory quickly became bittersweet. 

She was taking an Ephedra free product for a month and lost 30 lbs. More astonishingly, she made no changes to her diet and did no physical activity. She claimed she was doing tae-bo daily, a claim that was later refuted by her mother. The tae-bo videos she did have sat unwatched, functioning only as dust collectors. 

After a while her excessive eating surpassed the ability of the Ephedra free to burn fat. The product simply stopped working. After she stopped taking Hydroxycut, she gained all of the weight back and proclaimed that it did not work. 

I talked with her about her dietary habits and she remarked that if she ate any less she "would be anorexic." I have never seen someone who is 5'4 380lbs and is anorexic! She would look at skinny people eating chips and remark, "If I ate like that I would be a whale." 

I became frustrated to the point where I told her: "You are in denial. You're fat because you eat GARBAGE. You have claimed to try every diet, and you say they don't work. Your either lying, which would be consistent with your denial, or you're an alien. The laws of the physical universe don't apply to you. When it comes to calorie deficits, protein increase and fat and carbohydrate reduction, you're the exception where the other seven billion people are not. Is that what your telling me?" Sadly, her only response was "Yes, because it's true." Sadly, many obese persons are in denial, and they make excuses to justify their excessive eating orgies. 

The bottom line? Diets work, PEOPLE DO NOT. Diets will work on the basis that eating habits are changed. Weight will stay off, provided that eating habits remain in place. Cheating a little here or there is OK, but when cheating becomes normal practice, the "dieter" is doomed. A diet of junk food is a die-t. Junk food will reserve you an early bird spot in the graveyard. 

 Dieting does not mean stuffing your face with JUNK. Dieting means making a new pattern of behavior based on scientific principals. It means eating foods for what they do in the body, not for their taste, and certainly not to satisfy your junk food habit. When people say diets don't work, think of the above example. Clearly they do. 

5. WHAT WORKS FOR YOU DOES NOT WORK FOR ME 

Reality shows that millions of people engage in active lifestyles, and do so according to systematized action. The results they get show that there must be fundamental knowledge about the human body that we understand, otherwise their plans would not be effective. The results obtained by millions of hard-training bodybuilders and fitness athletes show that there are universal laws that apply to every human body. It is true that each organism will respond to stimulus somewhat differently, but there are universal physical principals that apply to the human body. 

For example, on the surface of the earth gravity applies to every object. We know that due to centrifugal force [generated by the rotation of the earth around the sun as well as earth's own rotation upon its own axis] we are held in place. We also know that to survive, each person must eat the required nutrients, and avoid poisons. We know that each body requires sleep. We know that every human requires water. We know that in order to hear sound waves must enter the inner ear, pass the cochlea, and activate the malleus, incus and stapes, which then transfer the sound onto the tympanic membrane. 

We know that if a person, regardless of size, were struck by a large transport truck moving at a velocity of six hundred miles per hour, the person would die. We know that these principals apply equally to all persons, everywhere. These realities are universal and without exception in their application. To deny universal fundamentals is to deny existence. 

If something is true [conforms to reality], it is true in all cases. Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification. For example, calling "sky" "ground" is not logical because each is mutually exclusive. 

If one were to follow the logic of the "what works for you doesn't work for me" or the "what is true for you is not true for me" argument, several questions face us. To begin, let us use an existent of reality already mentioned: The sky. 

It is a given that people are able to walk on the ground. If person Y defines "ground" as "the curved surface of the earth composed of solid matter", and sky is defined as "the absence of the above mentioned which is also curved and composed of the atmosphere, stratosphere and various gaseous chemical compounds", and to person X were assume the inverse argument, then we are in an excellent situation to test the logic of the two positions 

Suppose then, armed with an understanding of the two arguments we were to place both individuals in an airplane, give them parachutes and ascend to an altitude of 35,000 feet. 

 Person Y has identified the sky as the gaseous dimension that he is now within and will be jumping into, in the attempt to safely descend to the solid ground below. Person X, having the inverse position believes that the environment into which he is diving is solid and as a consequence finds no need for the parachute. He believes that the "ground" is the sky and the sky the ground and that the ground is gaseous and the sky solid. Therefore, he believes that he can walk in the sky. 

After all, he asks himself, what is a "parachute" anyway? Is it possible to know anything anyway? The object labeled "parachute" could be a "wuzzle"; or maybe "parachute" is something else. Maybe it's a "figment" of the mind - whatever a figment is. So he discards the "parachute" accordingly. "My reality is not the same as his reality", "What works for him doesn't work for me", he reasons. 

The time comes to vacate the airplane. Person Y and person X are ready. One is taking a parachute, the other not. Both are operating according to their belief. They jump. 

Until the moment where person Y pulls his chute they both descend at the same speed of seventeen feet per second toward the surface of the earth. But something is amiss. According to the belief of person X he should be walking, not falling. The end result is that person Y lands safely while person X is no more. In both cases, there was a principal that applied to each person equally. Gravity. 

Regardless of personal belief, both men were in the gaseous environment of the sky. Both men contacted the solid surface of the ground. Person X was right in that what worked for person Y did not work for him! Person X learned the illogic of his belief the hard way. 

As demonstrated by the above scenario, reality is objective and applies equally to everyone. Reality is not a respecter of persons. Gravity, the need for sleep and food, exercise principles - these are aspects of reality that apply equally to everyone the world over. These are universal principals of reality. 

If something is logical it operates by the same laws in all circumstances, and the results of the operation are predictable. For example, mathematics is logical. Depending upon the branch, a same calculation will yield the same result. Insanity has been defined as doing something the same way and expecting a different result. Kant attempted to invalidate human reason and cognition and thereby reduce man to an automated machine devoid of intellect. He sought to make man insane.

Now that we have examined and debunked several myths associated with obesity, and have seen how the wrong philosophy has caused detriment to millions world-wide, we shall now discuss the underlying master system of the human body. 

THE MASTER SYSTEM 

Endocrinology is the study of the master system of the body - the endocrine system [the hormone system]. Every living creature has a hormone system that produces chemicals in specific quantities, and assists in the regulation of the autonomic nervous system and various life functions. Understanding how our body's work will enable us to improve the length and quality of our lives. 

The master system of the body is most influenced by diet. Macronutrients act as messengers within the body triggering the release and activation of specific hormones. For example, carbohydrates [complex or simple] stimulate the release of insulin. Fats [good or bad] stimulate the production of testosterone, and complete proteins maintain positive nitrogen balance within the body. Exercise also stimulates the endocrine system. 

Specific hormones have certain functions. For example, upon consuming carbohydrates, insulin is released. Insulin is secreted from the pancreas and its function is to remove sugar from the blood. However, it also encourages the storage of fat, as well encouraging anabolism by offsetting the catabolic effects brought by cortisol [a natural anti-inflammatory]. 

Testosterone that is manufactured in the gonads contributes to feelings of well being in males, and also encourages fat burning and protein synthesis. Increases of strength and athletic ability may also result from increased testosterone levels. 

Protein acts within the body to increase lean muscle mass. It is also thermogenic in that it burns fat and thus elicits a visible change in body composition. 

 Clearly, understanding how ones body reacts to macronutrients will assist one in making better dietary choices as well as arming one with a formidable arsenal against the health-wrecking effects of obesity. The knowledge expounded above conflicts totally with the words of Kant. He would have man ignorant and blind, unable to defend against an enemy he does not know. Obesity is a killer and it is one that every human should guard against. Given that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure one can clearly see how this knowledge could prevent obesity before it becomes an issue for concern. 

By manipulating the endocrine system supplemented by dietary management and exercise, one can ensure continued health. 

SUMMARY / CONCLUSION 

We have addressed and debunked five myths regarding obesity. Obesity, as has now been shown, is, partially, a conceptual problem - a problem of the mind brought about by a false belief system. This false belief system results in chaotic thoughts that are misaligned or mis-taken about specific aspects of reality. The obese person is not following scientific principals. Instead, they are following non-reality, or principals of nothingness. 

While it is true that many obese persons suffer from genuine medically diagnosed obesity causing conditions and their subsequent symptoms, and while it is also true that obesity is a multi-determined behavior and its causes similarly multi-determined, a great majority of obesity results from the philosophical errors outlined here. 

In order to manifest change the obese person must discover the universal scientific principals by which their bodies operate, must adopt the correct philosophy, and must understand their patterns of behavior, as explained in this article. Only then is change, both physical and psychological, possible. 

INDEX OF TERMINOLOGY 

REFERENCES 

1. Beckman, L. (2002, October). Understanding the urge to eat. Psychology Today, p.22.


2. Center For Disease Control and Prevention. (1999). Prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents. USA.


3. Center For Disease Control and Prevention. (1999). Prevalence of overweight among adults. USA.


4. Easen, N. (2002). Asia falls foul to fat. Hong Kong: CNN.


5. Hick, J. (1999). The fifth dimension. England: Oneworld Publications


6. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I.Q. (1998) Brain plasticity and behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 43-64. (pp. 71, 104)


7. Maccarone, D. (2002, October). A hearty appetite may run in the family. Psychology Today, p.22


8. Peikoff, L. (1991). Objectivism: The philosophy of Ayn Rand. New York, NY: Meridian.


9. Rand, A. (1943). The fountainhead. New York, NY: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.


DISCLAIMER 

The information provided in this publication is for educational and informational purposes only and does not serve as a replacement to care provided by your own personal health care team or physician. The author does not render or provide medical advice, and no individual should make any medical decisions or change their health behavior based on information provided here. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained herein with other sources. Readers and consumers should review the information in this publication carefully with their professional health care provider. The information in this or other publications authored by the writer is not intended to replace medical advice offered by physicians. Reliance on any information provided by the author is solely at your own risk. The author does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, products, medication, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be presented in the publication. The author does not control information, advertisements, content, and articles provided by discussed third-party information suppliers. Further, the author does not warrant or guarantee that the information contained in written publications, from him or any source is accurate or error-free. The author accepts no responsibility for materials contained in the publication that you may find offensive. You are solely responsible for viewing and/or using the material contained in the authored publications in compliance with the laws of your country of residence, and your personal conscience. The author will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary, or other damages arising from the use of information contained in this or other publications. 

Copyright 㠃layton South, 2003 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright holder and author of this publication. 

Thanks, 


claytonsouth@bodybuilders.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

As bodybuilders we do our best to live a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately it seems as if our race is dying out. Many people are not living a healthy lifestyle. Most of American adults are overweight or obese.

What can we do to fight obesity?

How important is it fighting obesity?

What do you see in the future statistics of obesity? How did you come to this conclusion?

Bonus Question: How do you feel about child obesity? Who do you think is at fault to blame?

Show off your knowledge to the world!

The Winners:


RippedJordanian View Profile 
Nevel View Profile 
bitterplacebo View Profile


Prizes:

1st place - 75 in store credit.
2nd place - 50 in store credit.
3rd place - 25 in store credit. 

To use your credit, e-mail Will @ will@bodybuilding.com for more info.


1st Place - RippedJordanian
 Fighting Obesity 


Introduction To Obesity


"During the past 20 years, obesity among adults has risen significantly in the United States. The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that 30% of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older - over 60 million people - are obese."


- www.cdc.gov

Obesity is a dangerous epidemic that is threatening to reverse all the advancements in medicine that have allowed society to live a healthier, longer life. It is important to understand however, that there is a difference between obesity and overweight.

An overweight person is a person with above average body fat percentage, about 15-20%. It's important to note that it becomes obesity only when body fat percentage exceeds 20%, or when the excess fat begins posing serious health risks. Approximately 65% of adult Americans are considered obese.

Obesity is also increasing in children! The percentage of obese children has more than doubled in the past 3 decades. Today, about 16% of American children are overweight.

Obesity in childhood causes buildup of fat molecules and cholesterol in the veins of the body and heart, and as the child grows older, the buildup will reach a blockage causing a heart attack. Obesity from childhood is much more serious than adult obesity.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Obesity: A Four Part Series On The Worldwide Epidemic. 
We can no longer single out North Americans when identifying obesity. This article will talk about worldwide obesity, eating patterns, and youth obesity including what we can do about it. Learn more...
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



Obesity is serious, because it poses dangerous health risks which could lead to death! Some of the risks of obesity include:


Hypertension 
Dyslipidemia (high total cholesterol levels or high levels of triglycerides) 
Type 2 Diabetes 
Coronary heart disease and heart attacks 
Stroke 
Gallbladder disease 
Osteoarthritis 
Sleep apnea and respiratory problems 
Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon) Source: www.cdc.gov


What Causes Obesity?


Now that we've seen the dire effects of obesity on one's health, we can understand why obesity is wrong. But what are the causes of ever-increasing obesity in the world?

There are things that cause obesity which have always been there, and there are factors that are being introduced which are responsible for increasing obesity. I will be concentrating on because they are causing the increase in obesity. Factors which are causing increase in obesity:

1. Junk Food:

In the busy lives of today's society, we just don't have enough time to cook a healthy meal, and must often rely on fast food, junk food, or ready made food. All these foods are very high in fat and calories, and because they are processed, have little or no vitamins or minerals.

Increasing the intake of foods high in calories and fats is directly contributing to obesity.

"People who tend to choose foods that are high in fat or contain a lot of energy (calories) in just a small portion are more likely to gain weight than people who fill their plates with bulky but low-energy foods, such as bread, potatoes and vegetables. Eating too much fat can also increase your risk of heart disease."


- www.bbc.co.uk

2. Physical Activity:

Today's lifestyle has so many machines to do our work for us. Cars have replaced walking or biking, desk jobs have replaced physical jobs such as farming or mining. We have no time to do exercise that we have to resort to boring exercise machines such as treadmills or elliptical machines.

This decrease in physical activity causes no calorie burning which burn fat, or causes any muscle to be created which will burn energy and fat.

"Regular exercise can help to control your weight and improve fitness too, reducing your risk of problems such as heart disease and diabetes."


- www.bbc.co.uk

3. Awareness:

People do not fully understand the consequences of obesity until they reach the age of 40 or 50, where they might suddenly get a heart attack, stroke, or a serious illness. Although people may know the bad effects, they don't really care because they have not experienced them.

With wide availability of fat increasing foods, and lack of awareness for what they can do to you, it makes it difficult to resist eating fatty foods.

4. False Advertising:

Advertising companies are a large part of the obesity epidemic. Companies will create adverts showing how good their food product is and how good it tastes, but they will never tell you how unhealthy it is. For example, you always see the "I'm lovin' it" ads with steaming tasty fries and burgers, but we never see a man having a heart attack or dying in a hospital do we?

Companies who create low calorie foods are also at fault, because they usually just reduce the serving size to match their goal calories. You may buy a candy bar and check the calories, which will seem ok at first. But take a closer look at the serving size; it's usually something ridiculous such as 1/4 of a bar, or 2 grams! These misleading ads should be stopped.

5. Smoking & Alcohol:

Smoking and alcohol have been proven to increase cortisol levels, which results in more fat storage and muscle burning. Completely remove these from your diet!


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Smoking: How It Will Limit Your Bodybuilding Success! 
Of all the destructive habits one might pursue, cigarette smoking could, quite correctly, be considered one of the worst. Learn why and how it will kill you!
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




What Can We Do To Fight Obesity?


Obesity needs to end, and there are a number of things we can do to put a stop to it. As an individual:

1. Eat Healthier:

The easiest and best place to start fighting obesity is in yourself. If you are overweight, start eating healthier and avoiding fatty and high calorie foods such as products. I always stress the fact that this needs a complete mindset revolution, where you become more aware of the foods that you eat and avoid the bad ones at all costs.

I don't want you to just be excited for a week and starve yourself, then crack and start binging. You need to understand how to eat healthier.

2. Get More Exercise:

Just a 1/2 hour walk as soon as you wake up and before eating anything is extremely effective for burning fat. Fat burns most effectively in the morning because you have not eaten anything since you slept. If you are a bodybuilder, however, it is important that you drink a protein shake or eat a small pure protein containing meal to preserve your muscles and keep a positive nitrogen balance.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Protein Shake Recipes. 
Are you tired of drinking the same boring, bland tasting proteins shakes? Try these superb shakes and mix things up!
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



3. Set An Example:

When people see you losing fat and gaining muscle, you will encourage them to do the same, and you will be setting a positive example. This can affect whole communities.

4. Make Others Aware:

Show your friends how to lead a healthier lifestyle. Start a campaign at school or set up something at the office to teach people how important eating healthy is. You will immediately feel more confident mentally and physically, as well as feel proud to have made a difference.

5. Petitioning:

Create a petition for members of your community to sign which asks supermarkets in your city to stock up on healthy foods and remove the unhealthy ones. If its not there in front of you, you can't buy it, so you can't eat it!

6. Create A List:

Create a list of clean but tasty foods which you enjoy eating such as low fat foods, fruits, tuna...

7. Keep Yourself Motivated:

Motivation is the most important to fight obesity. Watch movies, read articles, keep motivational messages in your room to keep yourself from giving up. Also, if you are more advanced, help the beginners at the gym or at your office or school to improve. This will give you a sense of satisfaction, and encouragement to stay motivated.

8. Rallying:

It is important that governments and health agencies pass more laws which limit the ability for companies to falsely advertise, or make it harder on businesses to sell unhealthy food.

9. Education System:

School is where a child learns, and it usually contains negative influences. The soda machines, candy bar machines, and unhealthy foods should be removed and not sold at the school cafeteria. Kids need to stop eating unhealthy foods because they are too young to learn to do it for themselves.

Also, textbooks and educational material should be revised to include articles or stories about the dangers of obesity and the benefits of health and exercise. More physical education lessons should be incorporated in schools and gyms should be made available in every school.


How Important Is Fighting Obesity?


Obesity is an epidemic, and just like all epidemics, they need to be stopped before they go out of control and infect everyone. Fighting obesity is vital, because if obesity is not stopped, then all the medical advancements to make one's life healthier and longer will be useless.

Obesity will be killing the population instead of the flu or bacterial viruses now. Obese parents have a higher possibility of conceiving obese children because children pick up on the trends of their parents which will be lack of exercise, eating unhealthy foods, and not taking care of one's body and health.

We should be striving for a healthier society free of life threatening diseases. We can now prevent most diseases, but the mental diseases are what are difficult to overcome such as obesity and psychological disease.

It is important to fight obesity because it is causing a new generation of unhealthy, ugly, and expensive society which spends too much money on excess food and processed foods. The human race is evolving into a race which is careless about physical health. Health care costs are rising, as are costs of processed and fatty foods, and life expectancy could be much longer if obesity was taken care of.


The Future Of Obesity:
What can you see in the future statistics of obesity? How did you come to this conclusion?


Obesity rates and percentage of deaths from obesity will only continue to skyrocket if nothing is done about this epidemic to stop it. Obesity rates have been increasing and will obviously keep doing so. In the future, if current programs are effective and more programs are added to fight obesity, we will probably see increasing obesity rates slow down and stop.

We may also see a decrease in obesity rates from the current 65% in adults to hopefully about 50% in about 50 years. I conclude this because, from observing the different obesity rates and how they have changed, and trying to predict what will come.


Child Obesity:
How do you feel about child obesity? Who do you think is at fault to blame?


Parents are surely responsible for their child's obesity. Children are not yet mature enough to make difficult decisions to stop eating unhealthy foods, they follow their taste. It's the parent's jobs to reprimand children and teach them the benefits of a healthy diet.

My parents always gave me healthy food to eat and almost never brought in fatty foods or high calorie sugary foods into the house. If I didn't see them, how could I ask for them as a child? Also, fast food eating was usually only once in about 2 months and it was something amazing for me to eat Mac Donald's or Pizza Hut.


Click On Your Favorite Restaurant To Learn The Truth! 
©  ©  ©  ©  
©  ©  ©  ©  ©  




Other than eating habits, parents need to train their children to forget about video games and go out and play with other children for some exercise. That way they can have a sugary treat without gaining fat.

However, as a parent, you do not want a depressed child who is not allowed to do anything fun. The most important part is to strike a balance between healthy eating and exercising, and sweets and video games.

I believe it's the parent's fault that a child is obese, and they have to be responsible. The best way to do this is to sign up a child in a sport or team that he can play for that he enjoys. If your child enjoys playing a specific sport, sign him up on a team so that he can always want to go and exercise.

Although not all children are athletic, it is almost impossible not to find a sport that your child is good at. TV and video games have been shown to decrease concentration span and hurt the eyes while sweets and unhealthy foods have been shown to cause excess fat, cholesterol, and obesity in children. Striking a balance between the 2 is vital for a happy but healthy child!


RELATED POLL 
Is Your Child Overweight? 

Yes, My Child Is Definitely Overweight.
Yes, But Just A Little Overweight. 
No. 
Not Sure.  






Bibliography:


www.nhlbi.nih.gov 
www.bbc.co.uk 
www.cdc.gov 
www.eagletribune.com 


2nd Place - Nevel


As bodybuilders we do our best to live a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately it seems as if our race is dying out. Many people are not living a healthy lifestyle. Most of American adults are overweight or obese.


What Can We Do To Fight Obesity?


There are many ways that we, as bodybuilders, can contribute to the fight against obesity. First and foremost, we can lead by example. Let others know how good it feels to eat right and exercise.

Let our passion show through and share our enthusiasm with others. I know that a lot of people who get motivated to lose weight and live healthier when they see others around them doing so. How many of us started lifting weights, eating less sugar and more protein because we saw Rocky or Predator and were motivated to look like Stallone or Schwarzenegger? The same thing applies to people today.


RELATED POLL 
Which Is The Most Motivational Movie For Physical Fitness? 

Rocky. 
Predator. 
Super Size Me. 
Pumping Iron. 
Other.  





Another thing we can do to help is to be supportive of those who are making an effort. Be honest, we've all done it, maybe not now, but when we were younger... We see someone in the gym that is obese and making an effort to get back into shape.

They are tirelessly going from bench to bench, machine to machine, yanking, pulling, pushing, and doing it all wrong. We snicker to ourselves or to our lifting partners, making a negative comment about how they won't last a week. Most of the time, we are correct with our assumptions.

However, imagine how this person would feel if some of the "bigger" guys came over and talked to him or her and encouraged them with their training and maybe gave them some advice or answered any questions that they may be thinking. This little push of encouragement may be all this person needs to go from giving up and remaining obese to being dedicated and coming back again and again until their goals are achieved.

The final thing that we can do is to help those around us who have not made an effort to be active or eat healthy. Maybe invite someone unmotivated that we know to come along to the gym with us, even if it's just to spot us while we work out, and then slowly convince them to give it a try.

Have your family sit down to a homemade meal instead of ordering out for food and sitting in front of the TV. If you don't live with your family, invite someone over to your place for lunch or dinner and make them a tasty, healthy meal. You may be surprised to find how many people are pickin' up what you're puttin' down.


How Important Is It Fighting Obesity?


It is VERY important to fight obesity. If only for the sake of our species! We have evolved our society into a race of people who don't move and have everything done for us by machines. The national pastime used to be baseball, now its blogging.

Meals are rarely made in the home, but rather are delivered in cardboard boxes or Styrofoam containers. These methods of eating were once reserved for those who couldn't leave the home or make their own meals; it was called meals-on-wheels. Now they make up the staple of the American diet.

Percentages of the population with diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension have skyrocketed. All of these diseases show a high correlation with obesity. Instead of trying to prevent the cause (obesity), we are more content to get fat, get sick, and get medicine from a doctor. If we were to keep fit and healthy, we would avoid millions in health care costs.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Bodybuilding With Diabetes. 
Weight training can be therapeutic and is recommended for the prevention and treatment of many diseases and illnesses. For example, it is recommended that people with diabetes exercise regularly. This is true for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




The Future Of Bodybuilding:
What do you see in the future statistics of obesity? How did you come to this conclusion?


Based on what we are seeing now, the outlook for obesity in the future is not good. Although everyone is supposedly health obsessed these days and watching what they are eating, we are still seeing all-time highs in obesity statistics. The most likely reason for this is the fad diet.

People want fast, easy fixes for being overweight. We've been hearing it for years-


"The only secret is - there is no secret."

We've been told since the time we were born: to lose weight and avoid obesity, eat less and exercise more.

The only problem is that this solution takes weeks and demands discipline and dedication, things that most people are lacking. The fad diet on the other hand offers quick, easy results and all you have to do is take a pill or eat one food in huge amounts. Which sounds easier to you?

The only problem is that most of these diets don't work and end up doing more bad than good. Many people get on these diets and then rebound back to being heavier than they were when they started.

Our efforts to educate people about nutrition have been successful. Everyone I talk to knows a lot more than the public used to know about fat, carbohydrates, and protein. The problem is that they are not using the knowledge that they have. They take things to extremes since our mindset is "if some is good, more is better."

For example, the Atkins diet had been used by bodybuilders for years to drop fat. They would cut down on carbohydrates and eat lean sources of protein, forcing their bodies to use fat as fuel. As soon as the general public got hold of the Atkins concept, they went insane with it.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 10 Lies About The Atkins Diet! 
You'll discover the real truth about low carb diets and a real solution to the problem of excess body fat that is beautiful in its simplicity, yet powerful in effectiveness. Read on to learn the 10 Lies about the Atkins diet and discover the truth!
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



They would cut out all carbohydrates they had and eat plates full of bacon and lard. It should not have surprised anyone that this backfired and resulted in heart problems.

New food choices being made available to us also give us a clue about obesity in the future. More and more health foods are coming out every day. Entire aisles in supermarkets are labeled "heath foods" and salads are available in every fast food restaurant.

At the same time, food companies are coming out with the same number of unhealthy options. A good example is Burger King. After the release of Super Size Me, all fast food corporations added salads to their menus in hope of bringing back those health conscious customers they had lost.

At the same time, Burger King developed their line of enormous breakfast sandwiches, which boast around 750 calories. Which do you see advertised more: The container of lettuce? Or the creepy guy in the king costume and mask holding a breakfast lard sandwich?

So even though we are more knowledgeable than ever about nutrition and health, we still continue to dig ourselves into the hole of obesity. Hopefully people will begin to use their knowledge and eat right to avoid or cure obesity in the future.


Bonus Question:
How do you feel about child obesity? Who do you think is at fault to blame?


Childhood obesity is a growing problem these days. With 11% of children 6-11 being overweight and 30% at risk, it is a serious epidemic. Childhood obesity leads to early development of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and atherosclerosis.

In fact, obesity is the leading cause of pediatric hypertension (high blood pressure in children). Not only is it physically unhealthy, but it can also be psychologically unhealthy as well. We all remember that one fat kid who was always picked on in school. Kids are becoming more sedentary and less athletic.

RELATED ARTICLE 

Getting Your Kids Physically Fit. 
In a society that is becoming less patient and more sedentary everyday, it's no surprise that the child obesity rate has more than tripled in three decades. Don't let your children fall into this category.

[ Learn More ] 

They are hypnotized by instant messaging, television, and the internet. Schools are in a sort of naïve denial about the whole situation. They say they are going to implement more nutrition education programs in the schools. But this means an extra assembly or a few posters on the wall of the cafeteria.

I remember when I was that age, I never paid attention to anything that teachers told me about nutrition. In fact, knowing what I know now, most of the stuff they told us was incorrect anyways.

Gym class hours and sports programs are being cut in exchange for more scholastic education time since many schools have to meet certain test score requirements for funding. It is important that kids be smart, but if they aren't healthy enough to live long enough to use the knowledge, what's the point?

Although schools offer to "educate" students about proper nutrition, they allow their lunch program to be filled with unhealthy menus. School lunches are required to meet certain nutrient standards, but only on a weekly basis. That means that they can have a meal on Monday that has 60g of Trans fat and a meal on Friday that has no fat, but as long as it averages out to the nutrient standards set by the government, it is an acceptable menu for that week.

Most schools offer a healthy alternative to their students, like a salad. However, what kid is going to choose a salad when all his friends are chowing down on a big bowl of creamy Mac and cheese? The healthy options should be changed from options to entrees. This means more vegetables and fruits, leaner meats, and healthier desserts.

On the matter of who is to blame, some say the parents are to blame, other say food companies and advertising. I say that each case is individual. Being a nutrition major, I have seen many cases where indeed, the parents are to blame for their child's obesity.

They stock the house with unhealthy foods and take their children out for fast food on a regular basis. Fast food companies also have a hand in creating child obesity. Ask any kid what their favorite food is and I bet they will name something that is not homemade.

They will probably say pizza or a hamburger; however they are not referring to a 95% lean homemade hamburger or a whole wheat crust vegetable pizza. They are most likely talking about a personal pan from Pizza Hut or a brown cardboard disk between 2 buns that comes in their Happy meal.

On a personal note, I was overweight, perhaps borderline obese all through school. I didn't get into weight training or eating healthy until around my senior year of high school. Growing up with tall, lean basketball players for older brothers, I was the oddball of the family.

My mother, who has always been health conscious, encouraged me to lose weight, be more active, and eat healthier. She got rid of all junk food in the house and made me ride my bike to the post office every day for the mail.

Despite these positive influences from my parents and lack of junk food in the house, I still got fatter and unhealthier up until I graduated high school. I would sneak junk food into the house, go over to friends' houses and eat junk food they had, or get multiple school lunches each day. So the person that I blame for that situation was myself. It was not advertising, parents, or any other influence.

I refused to change my eating habits until I was introduced to bodybuilding. That's when everything clicked in my head and it became clear to me that eating healthy and exercising made me feel good and was something that everyone should do.

So maybe we are the answer to the obesity problem with some younger people. They haven't been properly introduced to a sport they can love. I believe that bodybuilding is the answer for many of these people.

So I do think that parents and the media can play a role in creating childhood obesity up to a certain age, however when they grow up it is ultimately up to each person to decide how much exercise they get and what to eat.


3rd Place - bitterplacebo


We've been hearing it more and more recently. America is fat. Obesity is an increasing trend in the United States. Hearing such phrases so often makes it important to understand exactly what the word "obese" means.

For the purposes of this article, obesity is the condition where the quantity of fat tissue stored on a person's body increases their risk of health conditions or starts to interfere with daily activities.


What Can We Do To Fight Obesity?


Now that we know how to describe obesity, we can organize a plan of attack. The goal of this plan is to help spread general awareness and knowledge concerning obesity and what can be done to combat it.

The first thing we need to analyze is where to draw the line between obesity and healthy weight. Then we can look at what factors contribute to unhealthy fat storage in an effort to show how obesity is a condition that can be controlled.

 Measuring Obesity:

BMI (Body Mass Index) - can be calculated from weight and height. Then compare it on a chart to find where a particular person stands comparatively in terms of body fatness. One problem with this method is that it does not take into account bone density or muscle mass, leading to inaccuracy.


BODY MASS INDEX CALCULATOR 
Weight:  Select OnePoundsKilograms 
Height In Inches:   

Results 
Body Mass Index   



Body Fat Percentage - can be calculated using a variety of methods like calipers or underwater weighing. These methods increase accuracy at the cost of some convenience and ease of measurement.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Body-fat Calipers Video Guides! 
Body-fat measurement calipers are readily available today and because of technological improvements have become more accurate. What type of caliper would fit your budget.
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



"By Eye" - fat is relatively easily distinguishable on a person. The above methods should be used by those thinking they might be bordering on obese or a little obese, but significant obesity is easily determined by simply looking.

Contributing Factors:


Sedentary lifestyle. This means little physical activity is ever done. 
High glycemic diet. The problem is generally too many processed or sugary foods lead to fat storage. 
Stress. Contributes in many ways to obesity, read on for details. 
Insufficient sleep. Sleep is related to some metabolic functions as well as appetite-related hormones.1 
Age. After age 25, metabolism decreases five percent every ten years.2 Average lifespan has also increased, allowing more time for obesity to occur. 
Genetic or eating disorders. 
Society's lack of awareness. Inefficient diet cycling. Increased marketing of foods/products with questionable health value. Overproduction of food. Psychologically reinforcing bad eating habits by rewarding the young with sweets. 

 Taking Control:

After taking another look at the factors that influence obesity, we can realize that the majority are actually under our control. The first step to take is setting goals and standards of behavior in each area, then applying changes to lifestyles in order to meet those goals.

The following strategies can be used by most everyone in order to establish the control in their life that is essential to combating obesity.

1. Increased Exercise:

Any regular exercise routine or activity will raise metabolism. These could be cardiovascular activities or weight lifting. Muscle burns 90% more calories than fat.2 Combined with a diet strategy, exercise is a powerful obesity prevention tool.

2. Controlled & Balanced Diet:

Skipping meals can lower metabolism. Substitute more organic foods in place of processed and sugary foods. Some studies show that alcohol consumption may influence the rate at which fat can be burned, so limit its intake. Make sure to get enough protein to preserve muscle tissues. Consider a minimum of .5 grams per pound of body weight, or more (1g/lb) when trying to gain muscle mass.


PROTEIN CALCULATOR 
Weight  Select OnePoundsKilograms   
Results 
Protein   



3. Minimize Stress:

Digestion is inhibited under chronic stress. Stress also has a negative impact on growth and sex related hormones. Sports, exercise, meditation, grooming, social contact, and other recreation are good ways to decrease stress. Stress is a burden needlessly carried by many, closely related to many mental disorders. External help in these areas is always available and easily accessible to those whose stress becomes unmanageable by themselves.


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Stressed Out - Cause And Solution! 
We're all familiar with psychological stress. It can bring us down both physically and mentally. ReNew can help. Find out what ReNew is and how it can relieve stress.
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



4. Sleep More:

Energy levels will increase, which may promote more exercise activities. It will also aid in the body's recovery from physical activity. There are also the metabolic benefits previously discussed.

5. Gain Knowledge:

My personal opinion places the pursuit of knowledge above all other strategies. If you know your enemy and how it works, strategies can be formed to fight it and victory will be closer.


How Important Is It Fighting Obesity?


There is much to lose and nothing to gain through being obese. Such a condition needs to be actively addressed and efforts to reduce it must increase.

Effects Of Obesity:


Increased risk for life threatening diseases. 
Increased risk for diabetes, which can also become life threatening. 
Increased blood pressure, which can lead to fatal heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and heart failure.4 
Increased risk for cancer. 
Increased risk for depression and low self-esteem. 
Increased cost of health care. In America, current policies will cover the administration of techniques to solve health issues as they become a problem rather than covering techniques to prevent an issue from becoming a problem. Obesity is a specific problem that can be fought through simple knowledge and prevention techniques instead of surgeries or medicines. 


RELATED ARTICLE 
 Depression And The Bodybuilder. 
It's both axiomatic and paradoxical that bodybuilders preparing for competition are malnourished to the point of sickness. Learn the truth about depression!
[ Click here to learn more. ] 



As we can see, fighting obesity will help alleviate many problems associated with it. It is important in things ranging from the physical, the mental, and even the economical. Improving the quality of life all over the world is certainly of interest to everyone. A world that is healthier is a world that is stronger and happier.


The Future Of Obesity:
What do you see in the future statistics of obesity? How did you come to this conclusion?


Even with our increased notice of this problem plaguing our society, obesity has been on an increasing trend for years. A study conducted at the American Institute of Research of Dietary Habits found that by 2010, 21% of American children will be considered obese.3 In previous years we have shown to be a few percent less than that number, approaching 16%.

The way I see things, the percentage of obesity should eventually reach a constant state. Efforts to prevent obesity from consuming us have been on the rise, and should hopefully lower the rate at which it becomes a problem. That along with the simple fact that obesity actually has a relation to death rate might prevent the percentage from continually rising to higher levels.

Regardless of what the actual future is, it should be everyone's responsibility to try to adopt and pass on a better lifestyle to our current youth. It is these youth who will, in turn, influence the future of further generations. The difficulty of changing the world is everyone's challenge. It's up to us to create a future better than the present.


Bonus Question:
How do you feel about child obesity? Who do you think is at fault to blame?


It's definitely not a good thing to have our children, the future, be growing up with the unnecessary burdens and stresses that result from obesity. Naturally, we want to look for the cause of child obesity in an effort to prevent it, but this blame is not so clearly placed.

We can't blame the children, who often lack the proper knowledge and awareness to control their lifestyle. The parents and adults may also not always have the proper knowledge of obesity to help prevent it from occurring in children, and thus are free from some blame.

The difference is that the adults are definitely more aware of obesity and the problems associated with it. Through this awareness, they have the ability to take actions concerning obesity. The adults can choose to learn more about obesity and how to prevent it. After gaining this knowledge, they can then attempt to influence children to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

I feel it's important that the children should actively make the choice to avoid obesity, rather than having a lifestyle forced upon them by adults. Life can be thought of us the decisions a person makes. If we take away a child's choice, we're robbing them of much of their life and their ability to grow up.

Ultimately it's adult who will teach children, so it's every adult's responsibility to teach the youth about obesity and how to prevent it. The more this knowledge reaches children, the more likely they will decide to take control of their own lifestyle. Real strength comes not through force, but rather through the ability to control.

So as we see, knowledge can be one of the most powerful allies in the war against obesity. It is knowledge that will allow us to control and strengthen our lives as well as give us the power to change the future.


RELATED POLL 
Obesity In Children: Who's Fault Is It? 

The Children. 
The Parents. 
The Cafeteria. 
The Fast Food Industry.  






References:


www.health.harvard.edu 
nutrition.about.com 
en.wikipedia.org 
www.nhlbi.nih.gov 



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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

In bodybuilding, as in any other discipline, there is much speculation surrounding the various methods and processes underpinning the ways in which to succeed. 

These speculations often lead to confusion and frustration on the part of the aspiring bodybuilder. For example, there is a misconception, in terms of nutrition, that avoiding fat at all costs will enhance ones health and create a winning physique. Research, however, would prove that strategically including the right type of fats, in the appropriate ratios, will not only improve health, but enhance physical development. 

Also, there is a belief that training aerobically will deleteriously impact on muscle growth. As will be shown in this article, aerobic training can be a valuable tool when aiming to increase mass. These are but two examples. There are many others. In fact, there are certain universal truths every bodybuilder should know. The following are guaranteed to improve anyone's physique. 


1: Lift Progressively Heavier Weights.


A fundamental requirement for anyone wanting to achieve size is to increase the amount of weight lifted from session to session. This increases the intensity of the session and ensures the muscles are subjected to sufficient stress, which will, in turn, elicits results. 


  Beginner's Bodybuilding Program! 
So, you want pack on some serious mass and carve out those abs? Here's a step-by-step introduction to the iron game that will get you started on the right foot. Don't expect overnight miracles - building a body takes time, focus and consistency. 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




The beginner bodybuilder would first aim to achieve a certain number of repetitions, with a certain weight (say 10 repetitions with 50 kilograms on the bench press). The following week, 2.5 kilograms would be added, and so on, until the lifter can only complete six-eight repetitions. 

The aim will then be to, once again, complete 10 repetitions with the weight they are currently achieving six-eight with. The truth is, the only way to progress in bodybuilding is to subject the muscles to greater a greater level of intensity on a continual basis - commonly know as progressive resistance training. 

In fact, a plateau may ensue if the same intensity is applied to the muscles day in day out. A plateau will halt progress and could diminish results. If one finds they cannot increase their training weight, overtraining might have occurred and this will need to be addressed before further gains can be made (refer to fact 10). 


2: Eat At Least One-Gram Of Protein Per Pound Of Bodyweight.


Most of today's bodybuilders, and indeed athletes in general, know that protein is an important nutritional component. 
However, what many fail to realize is to achieve to ones physical goals, protein is required in greater amounts than previously thought. 


What Are Your Goals?
>Lose Fat
>Build Muscle
>Improve Energy
>Other








In many quarters it is still thought that 70-80 grams per day is acceptable. This has been proven to be erroneous. Protein is a chemical compound essential to many of our biological processes - most notably for bodybuilders, the building of muscle. Protein synthesis (the converting of amino acids to proteins to repair and rebuild) can only sufficiently occur if an adequate amount of protein is consumed. 

Given bodybuilders subject their muscles to greater stresses than the average person, it follows their diets should be comprised of a higher percentage of protein. A good starting point (one that has been know in bodybuilding circles for some time) is one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. More is better in my experience. Many take in almost double this amount. 

Eating plenty of protein is probably the second most important variable, after training intensity, when it comes to building size. Foods rich in protein include eggs (which contain the highest biological value of any food protein), milk, chicken and red meat. One should make an effort to consume 30-40 grams of protein 5-7 times per day. One reason for not gaining sufficient size, is a lack of protein, and this can often be attributed to the inconvenience associated with correct meal timing and planning: supplements will help in this regard. 

A good whey protein supplement (shown to be the most effective) will supply around 30 grams of protein if mixed with milk. This can be prepared and consumed in an instant. Indeed, the importance of protein can not be overstated. A typical days eating (off-season) could be as follows: 


Breakfast (8.00am): 

One six egg omelette with cheese. 
One glass of milk. 
One cup of oatmeal.
Mid-Morning Snack (10.30am): 


One whey protein shake. 
Two bananas. 
Small bowl of rice. 
One slice of cheese (50 grams).
Lunch (12.30): 


One chicken breast. 
Large bowl of rice. 
One glass of milk.
Mid-Afternoon (3.00pm): 


One whey protein shake. 
One apple. 
One carrot. 
Two peanut butter sandwiches.
Dinner (6.00pm): 


350 grams of steak. 
One glass of milk. 
Two large potatoes. 
200 grams of broccoli.
Evening Meal (9.00pm): 


One whey protein shake. 
Small bowl of rice.
Before bed (10.30; optional): 


One whey protein shake. 



Calculate Your Protein Needs: 


Enter Your Bodyweight In The Box Below: 

Your Bodyweight In Pounds:  OR In Kilograms:  







3: Get Adequate Sleep.


Sleep is crucial for many reasons. For bodybuilders, sleep will assist the protein synthesis mentioned in the last section and help to mentally recharge the lifter for their next training session. 

 Sleep also assists testosterone and growth hormone manufacture. One thing to remember about sleep is the fact it often means 8+ hours without food. This could spell disaster for the serious lifter as the muscles might eventually begin to break down their structure to supply glycogen to the brain and other organs (gluconeogenesis). 

To negate this, eat a high-protein meal before retiring to bed, and one immediate upon rising (if aerobic training is not planned for that day). To achieve adequate sleep, the consensus seems to be seven-nine hours per night. To get this amount employ the following: 


Take a warm bath before retiring. 
Listen to relaxing music. 
Eat a small amount of carbohydrate. 
Retire at the same time each night. 
Don't watch television in bed. 
Resist sleep medications. 
Avoid alcohol and cigarettes. 

4: Develop A Positive Mental Attitude.


Thinking positively will enhance the muscle-building process in a number of ways. Quality of training will improve if one is able to approach each session with confidence and an expectation they will achieve their training goals. If one is experiencing negative feelings, this will have a negative impact on their training. 

For example, dwelling on a negative event while trying to apply maximal intensity will take the mind (arguably the most important muscle-building organ) off what is to be achieved - namely, a complete connection between mind and muscle. Speaking about ones body in negative terms will also impede progress. The body should always be spoken about on a favorable light, without losing sight of exactly what needs to be improved upon. 

Indeed, visualizing greatness will, in turn, become a self fulfilling prophecy and goal attainment should stem from this. 

To develop and maintain a positive attitude employ the following: 


Associate with positive people. 
Practice positive self-affirmation (repeat positive statements to oneself on a regular basis). 
Visualize success. 

5: Manage Stress.


Negative stress is probably the single most destructive thing one will encounter on their road to superior muscle growth. Everybody, everywhere, encounters a certain amount of stress, on a daily basis. This is natural, and survival is dependant upon it. 

Eating, training and talking are all stressful, and we should never avoid any of these. However, these are largely unavoidable and positive forms of stress. Negative stress (distress), on the other hand, is to be avoided for it can undermine any attempt to relax and grow (key aims of any bodybuilder). 


  The Implications Of Cortisol Release! 
There is another hormone closely associated with bodybuilding. This hormone is cortisol, a steroid hormone, and is probably the most underrated of the four bodybuilding hormones overviewed in this article. Read more... 
[ Click here to learn more. ] 




These events include smoking, drinking to excess, negative thinking, incessant arguing and lack of sleep and can cause the release of large amounts of cortisol. Cortisol is the body's main stress hormone, its release causes all manner of problems: constricted arteries, high blood pressure, the shutting down of various organs in preparation for fight or flight and thickened blood. Cortisol will literally consume protein tissue, and enhance the deposition of fat - exactly what a bodybuilding does not want. 

The following are effective stress-management techniques: 


Eat well and exercise regularly. 
Practice deep-breathing techniques. 
Try to remain optimistic (eliminate negative self-talk). 
When encountering a problem, focus on a way forward rather than the problem itself. 

6: Include Aerobics.


Contrary to the muscle-destroying reputation aerobics have gained, they are, in fact, essential to muscle growth. Aerobics will enhance, not only the metabolisms ability to burn fat, but also the removal of waste products (lactic acid) and the transport of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles where they are used to good effect - to build them bigger and stronger. 

They key with aerobics is to carefully plan them so as to achieve the correct duration and intensity of activity. Low intensity (do not overexert) medium duration (about 45 minutes) should be sufficient for bodybuilding purposes. A brisk walk remains probably the most popular, and effective, form of aerobics when aiming to assist muscle growth. A good aerobics program follows: 

Monday, Wednesday and Fridays: 


6:30 A.M. 45-minutes of brisk walking.

7: Include Fats.


Fat consumption is often thought of as counterintuitive when muscle-building and weight loss is the aim. Fat intake is not this clear cut. One must remember there are different types of fats, which serve separate functions. 

It is widely recommended that saturated fats (animal fat, solid at room temperature) are avoided as they are known to contribute to various health problems, including heart disease. However, bodybuilders are advised to include a certain amount of saturated fat in their diet as it is thought cholesterol (often found in food which contains saturated fat) and saturated fat, in addition to all other fat sources, boosts testosterone levels, which, in turn, contributes to gains in muscle size (Berardi, 2004). 

In fact, one study demonstrated that by decreasing dietary fat (which included the saturated type), both total and free testosterone levels were reduced. Upon resuming the fat inclusive diet, testosterone levels returned to normal. This study underscores the importance of dietary fat as a whole. 

The essential fatty acids (EFA's: Omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid and Omega-6 linoliec acid) are the fats most often referred to as beneficial for bodybuilders. Omega-3, found in all cold water fish, and Omega-6, found in evening primrose oil, and safflower and sunflower oils serve a variety of functions and should be included in anyone's diet if general good health is sought. 

Some of these functions include: 


The generating of electrical currents that make our heart beat in an orderly sequence. 

The enhancement of peroxide production thus helping to build the immune system: EFAs make hormone-like eicosanoids. These regulate immune and inflammatory responses. Omega-3s can slow autoimmune damage due to their anti-inflammatory properties. 

Joint maintenance: Together with calcium, Vitamin C, D, K, and boron, EFA`s improve bone mineralization.
It is clear that fats should be included if overall health, and muscle growth, is to be achieved. It is probably best to include essential fatty acids primarily, as their functions are more conducive to overall health, while saturated fats are to be included, but in smaller amounts. 


8: Avoid Overtraining.


A major problem affecting many over-enthusiastic lifters is overtraining. The condition of overtraining comprises a number of symptoms, which can destroy motivation and rob the bodybuilder of any possibility of continued growth - regression being the likely outcome. overtraining stems from a continuation of training, despite warning signs suggesting one should cut back on, or cease, their current routine. 

When striving for massive increases in muscle, one often pushes ones body to the limit, without realizing that rest is as essential a component in muscle building as intense training. Failure to rest adequately might result in an over-trained state. 

 Symptoms of overtraining are physical and psychological and include, elevated waking pulse rate, elevated morning blood pressure, increased joint and muscle-aches, headaches and tremors, tiredness, listlessness, insomnia, loss or decrease in appetite, injury, illness, chronic fatigue, insatiable thirst or dehydration, susceptibility to colds and flu, frequent minor infections and altered function of the endocrine, immune, and central nervous systems, (physical) and increased apathy and irritability, mood and sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, reduced ability to concentrate and lack of appetite (psychological). 

Ways to prevent overtraining include: 


Limiting training sessions to 45-minutes or less to lessen the protein degradation that results from pronounced cortisol release. 

Ensuring adequate relaxation and sleep. 

Making gradual increases in training intensity over a period of time rather than working maximally from the outset. 

Occasionally taking lay-offs to help renew enthusiasm and, more importantly, off-set the preliminary stages of overtraining. 

Eating a nutritious diet with sufficient vitamins, and minerals along with the bodybuilders best friend, protein. The body will simply fail to adapt to any training stimulus if diet is inadequate 

9: Use Supplements.


The bodybuilding diet (comprised of whole foods) should serve as a solid foundation for ones training program. Many enhance their programs with the inclusion of supplements. Supplements, as their name suggests, should supplement ones diet, not serve as its basis. This is not to say supplements are unimportant, as they are. 

Various supplements can be immensely valuable as they supply important nutrients, and other anabolic compounds, in a convenient, concentrated, package. The market is flooded with different types of supplements, and the nutrition industry is growing by the day, so consumer interest is certainly strong. This underscores the efficacy of supplementation - customers continue to come back for more because they are happy with the results they are getting. 

So supplements do work, and should form a part of ones bodybuilding regime. But which supplements work and which don't? It is probably best to experiment until the appropriate ones are found. Some of the more popular supplements include; 


Whey Protein: In my opinion, the best supplement available. Whey protein if used correctly, renders other forms of protein (food and supplement) obsolete. Whey protein has been shown to contain the perfect combination of amino acids (building blocks of protein). Furthermore, it serves as a direct precursor to muscle-building. 

Multi-Vitamins/Mineral: a good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement will act as an insurance policy to cover any nutritional gaps. If one becomes deficient in a particular nutrient (say one of the B-vitamins) their body will not perform optimally. 

Creatine: Since 1992, Creatine monohydrate has taken the bodybuilding world by storm. Creatine assists energy production and, as a result, leads to more intense workouts. It also super-hydrates muscle cells with water and causes muscle fibres to grow bigger and stronger. Creatine is a compound naturally manufactured in our bodies (in the kidneys, liver and pancreas), which is converted into creatine phosphate upon entering the muscles.
Creatine phosphate helps to produce ATP, our primary energy molecule. Bodybuilders are naturally drawn to the effects of creatine, so much so, it is now a staple part of many of these athletes diets. 


L-Glutamine: Around 60% of free-form amino acids circulating in the muscles are L-glutamine. Thus, L-glutamine plays a significant role in protein metabolism. Other tissues also need L-glutamine and will rob the muscles if they are not getting an adequate supply. It is therefore important to supplement with L-glutamine to ensure the muscles receive a continual supply, so as to continue repairing. 

10: Become Educated. 


Achieving success in bodybuilding involves a continual process of learning and experimentation. Reading articles like this one, and perusing sites like Bodybuilding.com, will help to arm the aspiring bodybuilder with information to help them on their quest to physical greatness. Books, videos and expert advice will also assist this aim. 

Without first learning the basics of bodybuilding, and as one advances, more specialized techniques and dietary principles, one will never progress beyond the beginner stage. Indeed, keeping informed about new scientific advancements and what is going on in general in bodybuilding will help one to progress beyond their genetic limitations, and transform their physiques for the better. 

Keep informed by: 


Reading the latest research reports (here). 

Reading Bodybuilding.com. 

Talking to experts with specialized knowledge. 

Reading bodybuilding and fitness books. 

Conclusion


Many bodybuilders spend a great deal of their time looking for certain secrets to further their aspirations. In bodybuilding there are not secrets. 

What has been tried and tested, and shown to work remain fundamentally prerequisite: progressive resistance training, protein intake, sleep, positive attitude, stress management, aerobic training, fat intake, overtraining avoidance, supplementation and a willingness to become educated remain among the most important facts any bodybuilder will come to learn. 

References 


Berardi, J.(2004). Testosterone, Environment and Lifestyle. Bodybuilding.com. [online] 
Hamalainen, E et al.(1984), J Steroid Biochem 20 (1): 459-464 

davidrobson19@hotmail.com

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Ice cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert made from dairy products such as cream (or substituted ingredients), combined with flavorings and sweeteners such as sugar. This mixture is cooled while stirring to prevent large ice crystals from forming. Although the term "ice cream" is sometimes used to mean frozen desserts and snacks in general, it is usually reserved for frozen desserts and snacks made with a high percentage of milk fat. Frozen custard, ice milk, sorbet and other similar products are often also called ice cream. Governments often regulate the use of these terms based on quantities of ingredients. In the United States, July 16 is National Ice Cream Day as made official by President Ronald Reagan.

Contents [hide]
1 Composition 
2 Production 
3 Commercial delivery 
4 Precursors of Ice Cream 
4.1 China 
4.2 Persia 
4.3 Arabia 
4.4 India 
4.5 The West 
5 Modern ice cream 
5.1 20th century 
6 Other frozen treats 
7 Ice cream throughout the world 
7.1 Turkey 
7.2 Australia and New Zealand 
7.3 Italy 
7.4 United Kingdom 
7.5 Greece 
7.6 Ice cream cone 
8 Using liquid nitrogen 
9 Ice cream alternatives 
10 See also 
11 Notes 
12 External links 



[edit]
Composition
Modern industrially-produced ice cream is made from a mixture of ingredients:

0-16% milk fat 
9-12% milk solids-not-fat: this component, also known as the serum solids, contains the proteins (caseins and whey proteins) and carbohydrates (lactose) found in milk 
12-16% sweeteners: usually a combination of sucrose and/or glucose-based corn syrup sweeteners 
0.2-0.5% stabilizers and emulsifiers e.g., agar or carrageenan extracted from seaweed 
55%-64% water which comes from milk solids or other ingredients 
These ingredients, along with air incorporated during the stirring process, make up ice cream. Generally, less expensive ice creams contain lower-quality ingredients (for example, when vanilla bean is replaced with artificial vanillin), and more air is incorporated, sometimes as much as 50% of the final volume. Artisan-produced ice creams, such as Berthillon's, often contain very little air, although some is necessary to produce the characteristic creamy texture of the product. Generally speaking, the finest ice creams have between 3% and 15% air. Because ice cream is sold by volume, it is economically advantageous for producers to reduce the density of the product in order to cut costs. Indeed, one of Margaret Thatcher's first jobs was to find ways of increasing the air content of ice cream. The use of stabilizers rather than actual cream and the incorporation of air also decreases the fat and caloric content of less expensive ice creams, making them more appealing to those on diets.

Ice creams come in a wide variety of flavors, often with additives such as chocolate flakes or chips, nuts, fruit, and small candies/sweets. Some of the most popular ice cream flavors are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and Neapolitan (a combination of the three). Many people also enjoy ice cream sundaes, which often have ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream, cherries and other toppings.

[edit]
Production

Ice cream is sold in a variety of different forms.Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury item reserved for special occasions.

Making ice cream was originally quite laborious. Ice was cut commercially from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in large heaps in holes in the ground or in wood-frame ice houses, insulated by straw. Ice cream was made by hand in a large bowl surrounded by packed ice and salt. The temperature of ingredients was reduced by the mixture of crushed ice and salt. The salty water, which is cooled by the ice, is liquid below the freezing point of pure water. Thus the immersed container with can make better contact with the salty water/ice mixture than it could with ice alone.

The hand-cranked churn, which still used ice and salt for cooling, was invented by an American named Nancy Johnson in 1846, making production simpler. The world's first commercial ice cream factory was opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1851, by Jacob Fussell, a dairy farmer. An unstable demand for his milk led him to mass produce ice cream. This allowed the previously expensive concoction to be offered at prices everyone could afford. Fussell opened ice cream parlors as far west as Texas. Many were still around well into the 20th century. Fussell later sold his business to Borden.

The development of industrial refrigeration by German engineer Carl von Linde during the 1870s obviated the cutting and storing of natural ice and then the continuous-process freezer was perfected in 1926, allowing commercial mass production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry.

The most common method for producing ice cream at home is to use an ice cream machine, generally an electrical device that churns the ice cream while refrigerated inside a household freezer or using ice and salt for cooling.


A bicycle-based ice cream vendor[edit]
Commercial delivery
Thanks to mass production, ice cream is widely available in most parts of the world. Ice cream can be purchased in large tubs and squrounds from supermarkets/grocery stores, in smaller quantities from ice cream shops, convenience stores, and milk bars, and in individual servings from small carts or vans at public events. Some ice cream distributors sell ice cream products door-to-door from traveling refrigerated vans or carts, often equipped with speakers playing a children's music tune. On the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, ice cream is sometimes sold to beachgoers from small powerboats equipped with chest freezers.

[edit]
Precursors of Ice Cream
People living in sufficiently cold climates have probably always taken advantage of snow and ice by flavoring them with fruit and honey. The ancients had saved ice for their desire of cool culinary for thousands of years. Mesopotamia has the earliest icehouses, dated 4,000 years old, in existence beside the Euphrates River, where the wealthy stored their items to keep them cold. The Pharaohs of Egypt had ice shipped to them. In the 5th century BC ancient Greeks sold snow cones mixed with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens. Roman emperor Nero (37???68) had ice brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. Today's ice treats likely originated with these ice culinaries made long ago. [1]

[edit]
China
According to Mageulonne Toussaint-Samat in her History of Food, "the Chinese may be credited with inventing a device to make sorbets and ice cream. They poured a mixture of snow and saltpetre over the exteriors of containers filled with syrup, for, in the same way as salt raises the boiling-point of water, it lowers the freezing-point to below zero."[2] The Chinese put sugar in the ice and sold it as food during the summer. It is believed that the Song Dynasty (宋朝) was the time when people began putting fruit juice in the water used to create the ice; milk began be used in the Yuan dynasty (元朝),[citation needed] as the Mongols, who adopted a nomadic culture, introduce milk to Chinese, where milk was not widely used as cuisine at that time.

[edit]
Persia

Bastani, Persian rosewater ice cream, is typically served between wafers as an ice cream sandwich.The Persians mastered the technique of storing ice inside giant naturally-cooled refrigerators known as yakhchals. These structures kept ice brought in from the winter or from nearby mountains well into the summer. They worked by using tall windcatchers that kept the sub-level storage space at frigid temperatures.

In 400 BCE, Persians invented a special chilled pudding-like dish, made of rosewater and vermicelli, working out as something like a cross between a sorbet and a rice pudding, which was served to the royalty during summers.[citation needed] The ice was mixed in with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors. The treat, widely made today in Iran, is called "faludeh", and is made from starch (usually wheat), spun in a sieve-like machine which produces threads or drops of the batter, which are boiled in water. The mix is then frozen, and mixed with rosewater and lemons, before serving.[1][2]

[edit]
Arabia
Ice cream was the favourite dessert for the Caliphs of Baghdad. The Arabs were the the first to add sugar to Ice cream,[citation needed] and were also the first to make ice cream commercially, having factories in the 10th century. It was sold in the markets of all Arab cities in the past. It was made of a chilled syrup, or of milk, with fruits and sometimes nuts. Gelato was introduced to the west by Arabs, through Sicily.

Arabian Ice cream is called "Butha". There are many kinds on the market which have advantages of being healthy and fresh, as they are made of fresh milk.

[edit]
India
As early as the sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi where it was used in fruit sorbets.[3]

[edit]
The West
Popular tradition asserts that Marco Polo saw ice cream being made on his trip to China and took the recipe home to Italy with him on his return.[4] However, Marco Polo in his writings never claimed to introduce ice cream to the west.[5]

When Catherine de Medici married the duc d???Orléans in 1533, she is said to have brought with her Italian chefs who had recipes for flavored ices or sorbets.[3] One hundred years later Charles I of England was supposedly so impressed by the "frozen snow" that he offered his own ice cream maker a lifetime pension in return for keeping the formula secret, so that ice cream could be a royal prerogative.[6] There is, however, no historical evidence to support these legends, which first appeared during the 19th century.

The first recipe for flavored ices in French appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery???s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature.[4]

Recipes for sorbetti saw publication in the 1694 edition of Antonio Latini's Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward).[5]

Recipes for flavored ices begin to appear in François Massialot's Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits starting with the 1692 edition. Massialot's recipes result in a coarse, pebbly texture. However, Latini claims that the results of his recipes should have the fine consistence of sugar and snow.[6]

[edit]
Modern ice cream
It was in the 18th century that cream, milk, and egg yolks began to feature in the recipes of previously dairy-free flavored ices, resulting in ice cream in the modern sense of the word. The 1751 edition of The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hanna Glasse features a recipe for raspberry cream ice. 1768 saw the publication of L'Art de Bien Faire les Glaces d'Office by M. Emy, a cookbook devoted entirely to recipes for flavored ices and ice cream.[7]

Ice cream was introduced to the United States by colonists who brought their ice cream recipes with them. Confectioners, many of whom were Frenchmen, sold ice cream at their shops in New York and other cities during the Colonial era. Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson were among the elite who regularly ate and served ice cream. Dolley Madison is also closely associated with the early history of ice cream in the United States.

After the 1830s when ice-making machines became available, ice cream gradually became more widely available. In 1843, Nancy Johnson became the first American to patent a handcranked ice cream freezer. This was followed by the invention of the ice cream soda. It was probably invented by Robert Green in 1874, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove his claim.

The ice cream sundae originated in the late 19th Century. Several men claimed to have created the first sundae, but there is no solid evidence to back up any of their stories. Some versions say that the sundae was invented to circumvent the Blue Laws, which forbade serving sodas on Sunday. Both the ice cream cone and banana split were popularized in the first years of the 20th century.

[edit]
20th century

An ice cream vendor in Vienna, Austria, July 2005 
The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory serves some of the tastiest ice cream in New York City, according to Zagat.The history of ice cream in the 20th century is one of great change and increase in availability and popularity. In the early 20th century, the ice cream soda was a popular treat at the soda shop, the soda fountain, and the ice cream parlor. During Prohibition, the soda fountain was promoted as an alternative to the saloon.

Ice cream became extremely popular throughout the world in the second half of the 20th Century after cheap refrigeration became common and wages became high enough to indulge in such minor luxuries. Soon there was an explosion of ice cream stores and of flavors and types. Vendors often competed on the basis of variety. Howard Johnson's restaurants advertised "a world of 28 flavors." Baskin-Robbins made its 31 flavors ("one for every day of the month") the cornerstone of its marketing strategy; the company now boasts that it has developed over 1000 varieties.

One important development in the 20th century was the introduction of softer ice cream. A chemical research team in Britain (of which a young Margaret Thatcher was a member) discovered a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, which allowed manufacturers to use less of the actual ingredients, thereby saving money. This ice cream was also very popular amongst consumers who preferred the lighter texture, and most major ice cream brands now use this manufacturing process.

The 1990s saw a return of the older, thicker, ice creams being sold as "premium" varieties. Ben and Jerry's, Beechdean, and Häagen-Dazs fall into this category.

[edit]
Other frozen treats
Snow-cones, made from balls of crushed ice topped with sweet syrup served in a paper cone, are consumed in many parts of the world. A popular springtime treat in maple-growing areas is maple toffee, where boiled maple syrup is poured over fresh snow, congealing in a toffee-like mass, and then eaten from a wooden stick used to pick it up from the snow.

Ice creams and sorbets are frozen while being stirred or agitated, resulting in a light texture. Popsicles are quiescently frozen - frozen at rest, without stirring.

[edit]
Ice cream throughout the world

Italian ice cream ("gelato") from the centre of RomeGlobalization has made available ice cream styles from around the world. For example, Japanese mochi ice cream (yukimi daifuku) is now popular in California, and is not limited to Japanese restaurants and Little Tokyos.

[edit]
Turkey
Since ancient times the people of Anatolia kept the winter snow from melting by storing it in mountain crevices which they covered with twigs. In the summer, they brought it up from its storage place, put it in bowls used for stewed fruit and, drizzling it with molasses, ate it. This sweet, which was called ???karsambac???, is regarded as the ancestor of today???s ice cream. With the entry of sugar into everyday life, fruit juices and syrups were also made and stored for consumption in winter. And they too were poured over ice cream and eaten with gusto. Fresh snow with molasses is still consumed in some parts of Anatolia today. Many fruit flavored ice creams do not in fact contain cream or milk but are fruit sherbets. Then there are ice creams made from yogurt. But the variety associated most with Turkey is the beaten ice cream of Kahramanmaras. Not easily melted and with a consistency like taffy, it is unique to Turkey. Kahramanmaras ice cream, which is hung on a butcher???s hook and cut with a knife, is believed to have been made since the 18th century. And its most outstanding ingredient, which enhances its flavor and distinguishes it from all other ice creams, is the 'salep' obtained from the knobby root of the wild orchid and ground in a mill. The ice cream made in Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep does not cause the usual 'burning' sensation on the palate, but instead a soothing one peculiar to the region. They are served in cups, cones, or waffle sandwiches. Traditionally, one could only find ice cream at shops that specialized in uniquely winter treats like pickles or the fermented drink 'boza', and whose trade in ice cream was therefore limited to summer. Now, ice cream is consumed all year round.

The 300-year old ice cream of Kahramanmaraş has a taste based from the flavour of the Turkish Anatolian soil and thus is thought to be unique this city. The surrounding Ahir Mountain's setting contributes to the taste, with its unique flora and fauna; the goats provide the unique milk with its taste and consistency based on their nutrition from this mountain of thymian, hyacinth, colchicum and roots of the wild orchid flowers that occupy the soil there.

The properties this Turkish orchid ice cream carries is also based on the developed method of its preparation. This ice cream is the world's most dense, hard, and flexible ice cream. Daily polls are conducted throughout Turkey, in order to prove how hard this ice cream is by asking passersby to cut it with a saw, in a "Test of Might". It is necessary to prepare and eat the Maraş ice cream which is the miracle of the Ahir mountain and its people, at Kahramanmaraş.

Dondurma is the Turkish word for ice cream and most important ingredient of orchid ice cream is salep, a whitish flour milled from the dried tubers of certain wild terrestrial orchids. It is creamy and has a smoothness and elasticity that is chewy and usually new to the beginning Maraş eater. The basic recipe is based on orchid roots, milk and sugar. The frozen mixture is beaten with metal rods and the ice cream is eaten with a knife and fork.

[edit]
Australia and New Zealand

An ice cream van at Batemans Bay, New South Wales, AustraliaPer Capita, Australians and New Zealanders are among the leading ice cream consumers in the world, eating 18 litres and 20 litres each per year respectively and people in the United States of America eat 23 litres each per year.[7]

[edit]
Italy
Ice cream today is a traditional dessert in Italy, where it is still mostly hand-made, though one of the most known ice cream machine makers is the Carpigiani.

Before the cone became popular for serving ice cream, Italian street vendors would serve the ice cream in a small glass dish referred to as a 'penny lick' or wrapped in waxed paper and known as a hokey-pokey (possibly a corruption of the Italian "ecco un poco" - "here is a little").

Italian ice-cream parlours (Eisdielen) are common and popular in Germany where many Italians have immigrated and set up business.

Italy also has its own take on the American favorite that originated at the same time. The most common and popular dessert there is gelato, Italian "ice cream". Gelato is similar but different, being made from whole milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring.

[edit]
United Kingdom

Ice cream van in the UKThe first English recipe for ice cream was published in London, by Mrs. Mary Eales Receipts in her English cookery book, in 1718. The recipe did not include a process for making the ice smooth and it must have been coarse with ice crystals.

But in the United Kingdom today, much of the lower-priced ice cream sold, including that from some ice cream vans, has no milk or milk solids content at all. Instead, it is made with vegetable oil, usually hydrogenated palm kernel oil. However, ice cream sold as dairy ice cream must contain milk fat, and many companies make sure that dairy is prominently displayed on their packaging or businesses.

In apparent contradiction to the above paragraph, the Ice Cream Alliance Ltd, a trade association for the UK ice-cream industry, says that: "It is necessary for a manufacturer to be aware of the compositional requirements of the country in which he intends to sell his ice cream. In the UK this is a minimum of 5% fat and a minimum of 2.5% milk protein (Schedule 8, the Food Labelling Regulations 1996) [8] (pdf).

In the United Kingdon, per capita consumption of ice cream is only 6 litres per year, which is quite low when compared with countries such as the USA and Australia.

[edit]
Greece
Although ice cream in its modern form is a relatively new invention, its use as ice treats in ancient times has a along history. During the 5th century BC ancient Greeks ate snow treats mixed with honey and fruit in the markets of Athens and the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, encouraged his ancient Greek patients to eat ice "as it livens the lifejuices and increases the well-being."[9] In the 4th century BC it was well known that a favorite treat of Alexander the Great was eating snow ice mixed with honey and nectar. [10] In modern times Greek ice cream recipes have some unique flavors such as Pagoto Kaimaki, (Greek: Παγωτό Καϊμάκι), made from mastic-resin which gives it an almost chewy texture, and salepi, used as thickening toughing agent resistance to melting, both give the ice cream a unique taste; Olive Oil Ice Cream with figs; Pagoto Loukoumi, (Greek: Παγωτό Λουκούμι), made with deep fried dough; Pagoto Kataifi Chocolate, (Greek: Παγωτό Καταΐφι-κακάο), made from the shredded fillo dough pastry that resembles angel's hair pasta or vermicelli; and Mavrodaphne Ice Cream, (Greek: Μαυροδάφνη Παγωτό), made from a Greek dessert wine. Fruity Greek Sweets of the Spoon are usually served as toppings with Greek-inspired ice cream flavors.

[edit]
Ice cream cone
Mrs Marshall's Cookery Book, published in 1888, endorsed serving ice cream in cones, but the idea probably predated that cookbook. Agnes Marshall was a celebrated cookery writer of her day and helped to popularise ice cream. She patented and manufactured an ice cream maker and was the first person to suggest using liquid gases to freeze ice cream after seeing a demonstration at the Royal Institution.

The popularity of selling ice cream in cones increased greatly during the St. Louis World's fair in 1904. According to legend, at the World's Fair an ice cream seller had run out of clean dishes, so he couldn't sell any more ice cream. Next door to the ice cream booth was the waffle booth, unsuccessful due to intense heat; the waffle maker offered to make cones by rolling up his waffles; the new product became extremely popular at the fair, and was widely copied by other vendors.

[edit]
Using liquid nitrogen
Adding liquid nitrogen with the rest of the ingredients and stirring vigorously produces a very smooth ice cream. The preparation is spectacular, since it results in a column of white condensed vapor, reminiscent of movie depictions of witches' cauldrons. However, the ice cream is dangerous to eat while it is still "steaming." The result, due to the extreme rapid cooling of the mixture, is a very smooth ice cream containing only small ice crystals. After the liquid nitrogen has completely vaporized, the remaining nitrogen bubbles are perfectly harmless and the ice cream is okay to eat, since nitrogen is a major component of Earth's atmosphere.

[edit]
Ice cream alternatives
The following is a partial list of ice-cream-like frozen desserts and snacks:

Ice milk: less than 10% milk fat and lower sweetening content, sold as low-fat ice cream in the United States. 
Frozen custard: at least 10% milk fat and at least 1.4% egg yolk and much less air beaten into it, similar to Gelato, fairly rare. 
Frozen yogurt 
Mellorine: non-dairy, with vegetable fat substituted for milk fat 
Gelato: an Italian frozen dessert. Also, simply the Italian word for "ice cream". 
Sherbet: 1-2% milk fat and sweeter than ice cream. 
Sorbet: fruit puree and no milk products 
Lollipop (or popsicle or lolly): frozen fruit puree, fruit juice, or flavored sugar water on a stick or in a flexible plastic sleeve. 
Kulfi: Believed to have been introduced to South Asia by the Mughal conquest in the 16th century; its origins trace back to the cold snacks and desserts in the Arab and Mediterranean cultures.[11] 
Dondurma: Turkish ice cream, made of salep and mastic resin 
Some ice creams are made without milk. Soy ice cream and rice ice cream are made with soy milk or rice milk instead. A minority of non-dairy ice creams are based on nut butter. Another popular variation is ice cream made with coconut milk.


Basashi (horse meat flavor) ice cream of Japan[edit]
See also
List of ice cream brands 
Arctic roll, Baked Alaska 
Astronaut ice cream 
Brain freeze 
Fried ice cream 
Ice cream sandwich 
Snow cream 
Soft serve 
[edit]
Notes
^ Tamra Andrews: Nectar and Ambrosia:An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara, 2000 (p. 121) 
^ Olver, Lynne (2005). The Food Timeline- history notes: ice cream & ice. /www.foodtimeline.org. Retrieved on 2006-04-07. quoting History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 749-50) 
^ Tannahill, Reay (1995). Food in History, revised edition, Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0517884046. 
^ For example see: Cadbury Ice Cream. Cadbury Trebor Bassett (2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-07. 
^ de Rachewiltz, Igor (2000). F. Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical Appraisal. Australian National University: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Retrieved on 2006-04-07. 
^ Goff, Professor H. Douglas. Ice Cream History and Folklore. Dairy Science and Technology. University of Guelph. Retrieved on 2006-04-07. 
^ Business Outlook: ice cream manufacturing (based on a report to be found through www.ibisworld.com.au). Reed Business Information (2005). Retrieved on 2006-03-03. 
[edit]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
Ice creamThe Complete Guide To Ice Cream 
Ice cream history and "who really invented the ice cream cone?" 
History of ice cream 
Ice Cream: A Short History - It all began in China and Arabia 
Cooking with Chemistry, Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream 
Frozen Custard the Milwaukee Secret. 
HowStuffWorks's How Ice-Cream Works. 
The words for Ice Cream, the famous novelty song by Johnson, Moll and King, sung by Walter Williams (with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians), which is the source of the refrain "I scream, you scream, we all scream, for ice cream!". A recording of their performance is available on Jasmine Music, ASIN: B0000659OZ, the title of the compilation is We All Scream for Ice Cream. 
Zippy Freeze Soft Serve Ice cream, Frozen Drinks & Margaritas in as little as 10 minutes! 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream"
Categories: Ice cream | Dairy products | Desserts

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Bodybuilding is the process of developing muscle fibres through the combination of weight training, increased caloric intake, and rest. Someone who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. As a sport, called competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders display their physiques to a panel of judges, who assign points based on their aesthetic appearance.

Certainly the most famous bodybuilder in the world is Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, whose Hollywood acting career was launched after his success in bodybuilding. His acting career was boosted by his appearance in the bodybuilding documentary film Pumping Iron after winning the 1975 Mr. Olympia title. This film also helped another bodybuilder, the hearing-impaired Lou Ferrigno, to get the part of The Incredible Hulk in the 1980s TV series.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 Early years 
1.2 The "Golden Age" 
1.3 1970s onwards 
1.4 Female Bodybuilding 
2 Sport 
2.1 Contest preparation 
3 Strategy 
3.1 Resistance weight training 
3.2 Nutrition 
3.2.1 Carbohydrates 
3.2.2 Protein 
3.2.3 Protein Timing 
3.2.4 Dietary supplements 
3.3 Performance enhancing substances 
3.4 Overtraining 
3.5 Rest 
4 See also 
5 References 
6 External links 



[edit]
History
As a sport of aesthetics, bodybuilding can be traced back to the 11th century in India where athletes created their own dumbbells called farhans (called Nals) out of stone and wood. There is also evidence that they created the first kind of gyms around this period.

[edit]
Early years

Eugen SandowThe "Early Years" of Bodybuilding is generally considered to be the period between 1880 and 1930.

Bodybuilding (the art of displaying the muscles of the physical body) did not really exist prior to the late 19th century, when it was promoted by a man from Prussia named Eugen Sandow[1], who is now generally referred to as "The Father of Modern Bodybuilding". He is credited as being a pioneer of the sport because he allowed an audience to enjoy viewing his physique in "muscle display performances". Although audiences thrilled seeing a well developed physique, those men simply displayed their bodies as part of strength demonstrations or wrestling matches. Sandow had a stage show built around these displays through his manager, Florenz Ziegfeld. He became so successful at it, he later created several businesses around his fame and was among the first to market products branded with his name alone. As he became more popular, he was credited with inventing and selling the first exercise equipment for the masses (machined dumbbells, spring pulleys and tension bands).

Sandow was a strong advocate of "the Grecian Ideal" (this was a standard where a mathematical "ideal" was set up and the "perfect physique" was close to the proportions of ancient Greek and Roman statues from classical times). This is how Sandow built his own physique and in the early years, men were judged by how closely they matched these "ideal" proportions.

Sandow organised the first bodybuilding contest on 14 September 1901 called the "Great Competition" and held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. Judged by himself, Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the contest was a huge success and was sold out and hundreds of physical culture enthusiasts were turned away. The trophy presented to the winner was a bronze statue of Sandow himself sculpted by Frederick Pomeroy. The winner was William L. Murray of Nottingham, England. The most prestigious bodybuilding contest today is the Mr. Olympia, and since 1977, the winner has been presented with the same bronze statue of Sandow he himself presented to the winner at the first contest [2].

On 16 January, 1904, the first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The winner was Al Treloar and he was declared "The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World" and he won a $1,000 cash prize, a substantial sum at that time. Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a film of Al Treloar's posing routine. Edison also made two films of Sandow a few years before, making him the man who made the first three motion pictures featuring a bodybuilder.

In the early 20th century, Bernarr Macfadden and Charles Atlas, continued to promote bodybuilding across the world. Alois P. Swoboda was an early pioneer in America and the man who Charles Atlas credited with his success in his statement: "Everything that I know I learned from A. P. (Alois) Swoboda"[citation needed].

Other important bodybuilders in the early history of bodybuilding prior to 1930 include: Earle Liederman (writer of some of the earliest bodybuilding instruction books); Seigmund Breitbart (famous Jewish bodybuilder); George Hackenschmidt; George F. Jowett, Maxick (a pioneer in the art of posing), Monte Saldo, Launceston Elliot, Sig Klein; Sgt. Alfred Moss; Joe Nordquist; Lionel Strongfort (Strongfortism); Gustav Fristensky (the Czech champion); and Alan C. Mead, who became an impressive muscle champion despite the fact that he lost both legs in the Great War.

[edit]
The "Golden Age"
The period of around 1940 to 1970 is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of bodybuilding because of changes in the aesthetic for more mass, as well as muscular symmetry and definition, which characterised the "early years". This was due in large part to the advent of the Second World War, which inspired many young men to be bigger, stronger and more aggressive in their attitudes. This was accomplished by improved training techniques, better nutrition and more effective equipment. Several important publications came into being, as well, and new contests emerged as the popularity of the sport grew.

This period of bodybuilding was typified at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, US. Famous names in bodybuilding from this period included Steve Reeves (notable in his day for portraying Hercules and other sword-and-sandals heroes), Reg Park, John Grimek, Larry Scott, and Bill Pearl.

The rise in popularity of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) added a bodybuilding competition to their existing weightlifting contest in 1939 - and the following year this competition was named AAU Mr. America. Around the mid-1940s most bodybuilders became disgruntled with the AAU since they only allowed amateur competitors and they placed more focus on the Olympic sport of weightlifting. This caused brothers Ben and Joe Weider to form the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) - which organised their competition IFBB Mr. America, which was open to professional athletes.

In 1950, another organisation, the National Amateur Bodybuilders Association (NABBA) started their NABBA Mr. Universe contest in the UK. Another major contest, Mr. Olympia was first held in 1965 - and this is currently the most prestigious title in bodybuilding.

Initially contests were for men only, but the NABBA added Miss Universe in 1965 and Ms. Olympia was started in 1980. See Female bodybuilding history for more info.

[edit]
1970s onwards

Arnold Schwarzenegger on the DVD cover of the bodybuilding documentary Pumping IronIn the 1970s, bodybuilding had major publicity thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 1977 film Pumping Iron. By this time the IFBB dominated the sport and the AAU took a back seat.

This period also saw the rise of anabolic steroids abused both in bodybuilding and many other sports. To combat this, and to be allowed to be an IOC member, the IFBB introduced strict doping tests for both steroids and other banned substances.

In the early 2000's, the IFBB was attempting to make bodybuilding an Olympic sport. It obtained full IOC membership in 2000 and was attempting to get approved as a demonstration event at the Olympics which would hopefully lead to it being added as a full contest. This did not happen. Olympic recognition for bodybuilding remains controversial since some argue that bodybuilding is not a sport because the actual contest does not involve athletic effort. Also, some still have the misperception that bodybuilding necessarily involves the use of anabolic steroids, which are prohibited in Olympic competitions. Proponents argue that the posing routine requires skill and preparation, and bodybuilding should therefore be considered a sport.

In 2003, Joe Weider sold Weider Publications to AMI, who owns the National Enquirer. Ben Weider is still the president of the IFBB. In 2004, contest promoter Wayne DeMilia broke ranks with the IFBB and AMI took over the promotion of the Mr. Olympia contest.

As of 2006, there has been more interest in the field of natural bodybuilding. In natural contests bodybuilders are routinely tested for illegal substances and are banned for any violations from future contests. What qualifies as an "illegal" substance varies between natural federations, and does not necessarily include only substances that are illegal.

[edit]
Female Bodybuilding
Main article: Female bodybuilding
In the 1970s women began to take part in bodybuilding competitions.

[edit]
Sport
For biographies of professional bodybuilders see list of professional bodybuilders and Categoryrofessional bodybuilders

In competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders aspire to develop and maintain an aesthetically pleasing (by bodybuilding standards) body and balanced physique. The competitors show off their bodies by performing a number of poses - bodybuilders spend time practicing their posing routine as this has a large effect on how they are judged.

A bodybuilder's size and shape are far more important than how much he or she can lift. The sport should therefore not be confused with strongman competition or powerlifting, where the main point is on actual physical strength, or with Olympic weightlifting, where the main point is equally split between strength and technique. Though superficially similar to the casual observer, the fields entail a different regimen of training, diet, and basic motivation.

The main organisation that promotes, funds, and judges bodybuilding competition is the International Federation of BodyBuilders. They organise bodybuilding's most prestigious competition - Mr. Olympia.

[edit]
Contest preparation
The general strategy adopted by most present-day competitive bodybuilders is to make muscle gains for most of the year (known as the "off-season") and approximately 3-4 months from competition attempt to lose body fat (referred to as "cutting"). In doing this some muscle will be lost but the aim is to keep this to a minimum. There are many approaches used but most involve reducing calorie intake and increasing cardio, while monitoring body fat percentage.

In the week leading up to a contest, bodybuilders will begin increasing their water intake so as to upregulate the systems in the body associated with water flushing. They will also increase their sodium intake. At the same time they will decrease their carbohydrate consumption in an attempt to "carb deplete". The goal during this week is to deplete the muscles of glycogen. Two days before the show, sodium intake is reduced by half, and then eliminated completely. The day before the show, water is removed from the diet, and diuretics may be introduced. At the same time carbohydrates are re-introduced into the diet to expand the muscles. This is typically known as "carb-loading." The end result is an ultra-lean bodybuilder with full hard muscles and a dry, vascular appearance.

Prior to performing on stage, bodybuilders will apply various products to their skin to improve their muscle defintion - these include fake tan commonly called "pro tan" (to make the skin darker) and various oils (to make the skin shiny). They will also use weights to "pump up" by forcing blood to their muscles to improve size and vascularity.

[edit]
Strategy
In order to achieve muscle growth (hypertrophy), bodybuilders focus in three main lines of action:

Resistance weight training 
Specialised nutrition, incorporating extra protein and supplements where necessary 
Adequate rest 
[edit]
Resistance weight training

German Bodybuilder Markus Rühl posing in Biberach an der Ri??.Resistance weight training causes micro-tears to the muscles being trained; this is generally known as micro-trauma. These micro-tears in the muscle contribute to the soreness felt after exercise, called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is the repair to these micro-trauma that result in muscle growth. Normally, this soreness becomes most apparent a day or two after a workout.

[edit]
Nutrition
See also List of nutrition related topics 
The high levels of muscle growth and repair achieved by bodybuilders require a specialised diet. Generally speaking, bodybuilders require between 500 to 1000 Calories (2000 to 4000 kilojoules) above their maintenance level of food energy while attempting to increase lean body mass. A sub-maintenance level of food energy is combined with cardiovascular exercise to lose body fat in preparation for a contest. The ratios of food energy from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats vary depending on the goals of the bodybuilder.

Bodybuilders usually split their food intake for the day into 5 to 7 meals of roughly equal nutritional content and attempt to eat at regular intervals (normally between 2 and 3 hours). This is thought to allow greater availability of nutrients, and may also assist with fat loss. This process is potentially a mechanism for increasing basal metabolic rate when compared to less frequent meals that have the same caloric sum, but this is disputed [3]. However, frequent feeding is an effective method of controlling blood sugar levels, which in turn will have an effect on hunger, energy levels, and muscle growth.[citation needed]

[edit]
Carbohydrates
Having a large proportion of the diet come from carbohydrates gives the body enough energy to deal with the rigours of training and recovery. Bodybuilders require polysaccharides, which release energy more slowly than simple sugars. This is important as simple sugars cause an insulin response, which places the body in a state where it is likely to store additional food energy as fat rather than muscle, and which can waste energy that should be going towards muscle growth. However bodybuilders do ingest some simple sugars (often in form of pure glucose or maltodextrin) post-workout to replenish glycogen stores within the muscle.

[edit]
Protein
It is recommended that bodybuilders receive 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound per day of lean body weight (2 to 5 g/kg) to help the body recover and build. It is a widely debated topic, with many arguing that 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is ideal, and others recommending 1.5 or 2. There is much debate concerning the best type of protein to take. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy foods are high in protein, as are some nuts, seeds, beans and lentils. Casein or whey are often used to supplement the diet with additional protein. It is believed that protein needs to be consumed frequently throughout the day; however, the most important times for bodybuilders to consume protein are within 45 minutes of a workout and before going to sleep.

[edit]
Protein Timing
The goal for anyone wishing to optimize muscle building and minimize the storage of excess calories as body fat is to eat as perfectly as possible so that the body is provided a steady stream of nutrients, and so that blood sugar levels also remain steady. According to Natural Bodybuilding Champion and personal trainer Jeff Behar, an important way to accomplish this goal, besides eating high quality foods, is to eat small multiple meals (every 2 to 3 hours). Since there is only a very small amount of amino acid in the bloodstream, to maintain an anabolic (muscle building) environment complete proteins must be eaten with every meal. It is the acute and large increase in the amount of amino acids in the blood that causes protein synthesis rates to increase as well as a decrease in protein breakdown.

Maintaining a positive nitrogen balance will prevent the body from dipping into its own muscle tissue (catabolism) to get nutrients it needs (like protein). This is why it is important to eat five to six protein-containing meals per day (one about every two to three hours, each containing around 30-40 grams of protein, to maintain a positive nitrogen balance (which occurs from the breakdown of amino acids).

Eating small evenly spaced meals may help stabilize insulin levels. It may also be easier on the digestive system. However, studies have shown that eating frequent smaller meals will not raise the metabolic rate, burn more calories, or result in less body fat storage. [4]

[edit]
Dietary supplements
Main article: Bodybuilding supplements
The important role of nutrition in building muscle means bodybuilders may consume a wide variety of dietary supplements. [1] Commonly used products include: essential fatty acid; amino acids; vitamin and mineral formulations; glucosamine and/or chondroitin; MSM (methylsulfonylmethane); thermogenics and creatine. These products are used in an effort to ensure adequate nutrition in an effort to gain additional size, though research on the effectiveness of the majority of such products remains to be seen.

[edit]
Performance enhancing substances
Like most sports, some bodybuilders choose to use drugs to gain an advantage over results due to natural hypertrophy, especially in professional competitions. Although many of these substances are illegal in many countries, in professional bodybuilding the use of anabolic steroids and precursor substances such as prohormones are used in high level competitions. Most steroids allow the human body to be in a more anabolic state. Some negative side-effects accompany steroid abuse, such as liver damage and a decline in the body's own testosterone production, which can cause testicular atrophy and possible infertility. Growth Hormone (GH) and insulin are also used. GH is incredibly expensive compared to steroids, while insulin is very readily available yet fatal if misused. See Growth hormone treatment for bodybuilding.

[edit]
Overtraining
Main article: Overtraining
Overtraining is generally regarded as one of the biggest and most common problems bodybuilders face. It refers to when a bodybuilder has trained to the point where his workload exceeds his recovery capacity. There are many reasons that overtraining occurs, including lack of adequate nutrition, lack of recovery time between workouts, insufficient sleep, and training at a high intensity for too long (a lack of periodisation). Training at a high intensity too frequently also stimulates the central nervous system (CNS) too frequently, and can result in a hyper-adrenergic state that interferes with sleep patterns. To avoid overtraining, intense frequent training must be met with at least an equal amount of purposeful recovery. Timely provision of carbohydrates, proteins, and various micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, even nutritional supplements are acutely critical.

It has been argued that overtraining can be beneficial. One article published by Muscle & Fitness Magazine stated that you can "Overtrain for Big Gains". It suggested that if one is planning a restful holiday and they do not wish to inhibit their bodybuilding lifestyle too much, they should overtrain before taking the holiday, so the body can rest easily and recuperate and grow.

More commonly however, overtraining can be used advantageously, as when a bodybuilder is purposely overtrained for a brief period of time to super compensate during a regeneration phase. These are known as "shock micro-cycles" and were a key training technique used by Soviet athletes. The vast amount of overtraining that occurs in average bodybuilders however, is generally unplanned and completely unnecessary.

[edit]
Rest
Although muscle stimulation occurs in the gym lifting weights, muscle growth occurs afterward during rest. Without adequate rest and sleep, muscles do not have an opportunity to recover and build. About eight hours of sleep a night is desirable for the bodybuilder to be refreshed, although this varies from person to person. Additionally, many athletes find a daytime nap further increases their body's ability to build muscle.

When it comes to resting, bodybuilders have to know how long their body can go without training. If they rest for too long, their bodies enter a state known as 'Fat Thin'. This is when a body looks fat due to a high intake of fatty foods, but looks thin as no muscle is visible.

[edit]
See also
For a list of words used in bodybuilding, see the Bodybuilding category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionaryWikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject: 
BodybuildingAmazon Feminism 
Arnold Classic 
Athletic training 
Bodybuilding supplement 
Body image 
Eugen Sandow 
Exercise 
Exercise equipment (article) 
Exercise equipment (index) 
Exercise machine 
Exercise physiology 
Growth hormone treatment for bodybuilding 
Gym 
List of health and fitness magazines 
List of muscles of the human body 
Muscle 
Muscle & Fitness 
Muscle dysmorphia 
Muscular system (article) 
Muscular system (index) 
Overtraining 
Physical culture 
Physical fitness 
Physical strength 
Powerlifting 
Striation 
Sports medicine 
Steroid 
Steroid cycle 
Steroid hormone 
Steroid stack 
Strength training 
Weightlifting 
Weight training 
Weight training bench 
Weight training equipment 
Weight training exercises 
[edit]
References
^ Philen RM, Ortiz DI, Auerbach SB, Falk H (1992). "Survey of advertising for nutritional supplements in health and bodybuilding magazines". JAMA 268 (8): 1008-11. PMID 1501305. 
[edit]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
Category:Bodybuildinglist of possible exercises 
GetBig.com 
History of Mr. Olympia 
Bodybuilding in Teens Becoming Excessive and Dangerous Daily News Central Health 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodybuilding"
Categories: Articles to be merged | Bodybuilding

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

This article is about the chemical family of steroids in general. For discussion of performance-enhancing steroids and their effects, please see Anabolic steroid.
A steroid is a lipid characterized by a carbon skeleton with four fused rings. All steroids are derived from the acetyl CoA biosynthetic pathway. Different steroids vary in the functional groups attached to these rings. Hundreds of distinct steroids have been identified in plants, animals, and fungi. Their most important role in most living systems is as hormones. Steroid hormones produce their physiological effects by binding to steroid hormone receptor proteins. The binding of steroid hormones to their receptors causes changes in gene transcription and cell function.


Steroid skeleton. Carbons 18 and above can be absent.In human physiology and medicine, the most important steroids are cholesterol, the steroid hormones, and their precursors and metabolites. In the bloodstream steroids are bound to carrier proteins.

Cholesterol is an important steroid alcohol, being a common component of animal cell membranes. However, a high level of it can cause various conditions and diseases, such as atherosclerosis. Most other steroids are synthesized from cholesterol. Also, various hormones, including vertebrate sex hormones, are steroids created from cholesterol.

Some of the common categories of steroids include:

Anabolic steroids are a class of steroids that interact with androgen receptors to increase muscle and bone synthesis. There are natural and synthetic anabolic steroids. These are the "steroids" used by athletes to increase performance. 
Corticosteroids include glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoids: 
Glucocorticoids regulate many aspects of metabolism and immune function, and often prescribed by doctors to reduce inflammatory conditions like asthma and arthritis. 
Mineralocorticoids are corticosteroids that help maintain blood volume and control renal excretion of electrolytes. 
Sex steroids are a subset of sex hormones that produce sex differences or support reproduction. They include androgens, estrogens, and progestagens. 
Phytosterols - steroids naturally occurring in plants. 
The term steroid is often used more restrictively in specific contexts. For instance, steroid in common medical usage by non-endocrinologists usually refers to corticosteroids, nearly always glucocorticoids. In an athletic or body-building context, steroid commonly refers to anabolic steroids.

Sex steroids include estrogen (U.S spelling) or oestrogen (UK spelling), progesterone and androgen. Oestrogen and progesterone are made primarily in the ovary and in the placenta during pregnancy and testosterone in the testis.




[edit]
External links
Michael W. King's Medical Biochemistry. Steroids and retinoids are both terpenes which are hydrophobic, pass through cell membranes and bind to intracellular receptors. However, retinoic acid is not a steroid because is does not have the defining ring structure. See: Steroids and Related Hydrophobic Molecules. 
"Biochemistry" by Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko and Lubert Stryer (2002) W. H. Freeman and Co. steroid topics in this 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid"
Category: Steroids

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

"CD" redirects here. For other uses, see CD (disambiguation). For the Public Image Ltd album called "Compact Disc" on certain editions, see Album (album). 

The Compact Disc logo was inspired by that of the previous Compact Cassette. It may only be used on discs that comply with the Red Book specificationsA Compact Disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. The CD, introduced in 1982, remains the standard playback format for commercial audio recordings as of mid-2006. An audio compact disc consists of one or more stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard compact discs have a diameter of 120 mm or 80 mm. The 120 mm discs can hold approximately 80 minutes of audio. The 80 mm discs, sometimes used for CD singles, hold approximately 20 minutes of audio. Compact disc technology was later adapted for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM, and to include record-once and re-writable media (CD-R and CD-RW). CD-ROMs and CD-Rs remain widely used technologies in the personal-computer industry as of 2006. The CD and its extensions have been extremely successful: in 2004, the annual worldwide sales of CD-Audio, CD-ROM, and CD-R reached about 30 billion discs.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
2 Physical details 
3 Disc shapes and diameters 
4 Audio format 
4.1 Storage capacity and playing time 
4.2 Main physical parameters 
4.3 Data structure 
5 CD-ROM 
6 Manufacture 
7 Recordable CD 
8 Copy protection 
9 References 
10 See also 



[edit]
History
In the early 1970s, using video Laserdisc technology, Philips' researchers started experiments with "audio-only" optical discs, initially with wideband frequency modulation FM and later with digitized PCM audio signals. The compact disc was thus developed by Philips from its own 12 inch Philips LaserVision discs. At the end of the 1970s, Philips, Sony, and other companies presented prototypes of digital audio discs.

In 1979 Philips and Sony decided to join forces, setting up a joint task force of engineers whose mission was to design the new digital audio disc. Prominent members of the task force were Kees Immink and Toshitada Doi. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the taskforce produced the "Red Book", the Compact Disc standard. Philips contributed the general manufacturing process, based on the video LaserDisc technology. Philips also contributed the Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation, EFM, which offers both a long playing time and a high resilience against disc handling damage such as scratches and fingerprints; while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC. The Compact Disc Story, told by a former member of the taskforce, gives background information on the many technical decisions made, including the choice of the sampling frequency, playing time, and disc diameter. According to Philips, the Compact Disc was thus "invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team."[1]

The Compact Disc reached the market in late 1982 in Asia and early the following year in other markets. This event is often seen as the "Big Bang" of the digital audio revolution. The new audio disc was enthusiastically received, especially in the early-adopting classical music and audiophile communities and its handling quality received particular praise. The far larger popular and rock music industries were slower to adopt the new format, especially in the huge consumer markets in Europe and the United States.

The design of the CD was originally conceived as an evolution of the gramophone record, rather than primarily as a data storage medium. Only later did the concept of an 'audio file' arise, and the generalising of this to any data file. From its origins as a music format, Compact Disc has grown to encompass other applications. In June 1985, the CD-ROM (read-only memory) and, in 1990, CD-Recordable were introduced, also Developed by Sony and Philips.

[edit]
Physical details
Compact discs are made from a 1.2 mm thick disc of very pure polycarbonate plastic. A thin layer of Super Purity Aluminium is applied (or rarely gold, used for its data longevity, such as in some limited-edition audiophile CDs) to the surface to make it reflective, which is protected by a film of lacquer. The lacquer can be printed with a label. Common printing methods for compact discs are silkscreening and offset printing. CD data is stored as a series of tiny indentations (pits), encoded in a tightly packed spiral track of pits moulded into the top of the polycarbonate layer. The areas between pits are known as 'lands'. Each pit is approximately 100 nm deep by 500 nm wide, and varies from 850 nm to 3.5 μm of length. The spacing between the tracks, the pitch, is 1.6 μm. A CD is read by focusing a 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser through the bottom of the polycarbonate layer. The difference in height between pits and lands leads to a phase difference between the light reflected from a pit and from its surrounding land. By measuring the intensity with a photodiode, one is able to read the data from the disc. The pits and lands themselves do not represent the zeroes and ones of binary data. Instead a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a zero. This in turn is decoded by reversing the Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Coding, finally revealing the raw audio data stored on the disc.


A Mini-CD is 8 centimeters in diameterThe Red Book specifies many mechanical parameters including the pit depth. It specifies that the pit depth should be less than (and, thus, not equal to) 130 nm. However, the Red Book implicitly specifies the pit depth by specifying the strength of both the push-pull radial tracking signal and full aperture detection signal. For a maximum full aperture signal, the optimum pit depth is λ/4n = 130 nm (refractive index n=1.5, λ=780 nm). For a maximum push-pull radial tracking signal the best choice is λ/8n = 65 nm. Most CD manufacturers, dependent on the exact pit geometry such as the slope of the pit edges etc, choose a pit depth of around 90-100 nm, (which is around λ/6n) yielding a sound trade-off between the quality of the push-pull radial tracking and full aperture detection signal.

Pits are much closer to the label side of a disc so that defects and dirt on the clear side can be out of focus during playback. Discs consequently suffer more damage because of defects such as scratches on the label side, whereas clear-side scratches can be repaired by refilling them with plastic of similar index of refraction.

[edit]
Disc shapes and diameters
In reverse fashion to that of a vinyl record, the digital data on a CD begins at the center of the disc and proceeds outwards to the edge, which allows adaptation to the different size formats available. Standard CDs are available in two sizes. By far the most common is 120 mm in diameter, with a 74-minute audio capacity and a 650 MB data or an 80-minute audio capacity and a 700 MB data. 80mm discs are also available, a format which is mainly used for audio CD singles in some regions (e.g. Japan), much like the old vinyl single. Each such "miniCD" or "Maxi CD" can hold 21 minutes of music, or 184 MB of data (this form factor has also been called "CD3", since it is about three inches across). There is a 15 mm hole in the centre of the disc, usually used by some form of clamp or clip device within the player to hold it in place and allow it to be rotated by a motor.

Other non-standard shapes and smaller form factors have also been sold or given away as promotional items. All of these unique shapes must fit within the 120mm ring or the 80mm ring that is standard on tray drives. Any shape falling between the 80mm ring and the 120mm ring of a tray drive, such as a credit card-sized CD business cards, must include a method of locating the disc in the tray during load and unload. This is usually a circular ridge on their underside. Irregularly shaped, non rotationally symmetric discs with an offset centre of mass may cause damaging vibration if played in computer CD drives, which may operate at a much higher rotational velocity than stand-alone audio CD players. Even symmetrical rectangular discs often cause far more vibration than standard circular ones.

[edit]
Audio format
The format of the audio disc, known as the "Red Book" standard, was laid out by Sony and Philips in 1981. The format is a two-channel 16-bit PCM encoding at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate. Four-channel sound is an allowed option within the Red Book format, but has never been implemented.

The sampling rate of 44.1 kHz is inherited from a method of converting digital audio into an analog video signal for storage on video tape, which was the most affordable way to get the data from the recording studio to the CD manufacturer at the time the CD specification was being developed. A device that turns an analog audio signal into PCM audio, which in turn is changed into an analog video signal is called a PCM adaptor. This technology could store six samples (three samples per each stereo channel) in a single horizontal line. A standard NTSC video signal has 245 usable lines per field, and 59.94 fields/s, which works out at 44,056 samples/s. Similarly PAL has 294 lines and 50 fields, which gives 44,100 samples/s. This system could either store 14-bit samples with some error correction, or 16-bit samples with almost no error correction. There was a long debate over whether to use 14 or 16 bit samples and/or 44,056 or 44,100 samples/s when the Sony/Philips task force designed the compact disc; 16 bits and 44.1 kilosamples per second prevailed.

[edit]
Storage capacity and playing time
The original target storage capacity for a CD was one hour of audio content, and a disc diameter of 11.5 cm was sufficient. However, according to Philips, Sony vice-president Norio Ohga suggested extending the capacity to 74 minutes to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony on a single disk.[2] Kees Immink of Philips refutes this.[3] The extra playing time required changing to a 12 cm disc.

According to a Sunday Tribune interview [4] the story is slightly more involved. At that time (1979) Philips owned Polygram, one of the world's largest distributors of music. Polygram had set up a large experimental CD disc plant in Hanover, Germany, which could produce huge amounts of CDs having, of course, a diameter of 11.5cm. Sony did not yet have such a facility. If Sony had agreed on the 11.5cm disc, Philips would have had a significant competitive edge in the market. Sony was aware of that, did not like it, and something had to be done. The long-playing time of Beethoven's Ninth imposed by Ohga was used to push Philips to accept 12cm, so that Philips' Polygram lost its edge on disc fabrication.

The 74-minute playing time of a CD, being more than that of most long-playing vinyl albums, was often used to the format's advantage during the early years when CDs and LPs vied for commercial sales. CDs would often be released with one or more bonus tracks, enticing consumers to buy the CD for the extra material. However, attempts to combine double LPs onto one CD occasionally resulted in an opposing situation in which the CD would actually offer fewer tracks than the LP equivalent.

[edit]
Main physical parameters
The main parameters of the CD (taken from the September 1983 issue of the compact disc specification) are as follows:

Scanning velocity: 1.2???1.4 m/s (constant linear velocity) - equivalent to approximately 500 rpm at the inside of the disc, and approximately 200 rpm at the outside edge. 
Track pitch: 1.6 μm. 
Disc diameter 120 mm. 
Disc thickness: 1.2 mm. 
Inner radius program area: 25 mm. 
Outer radius program area: 58 mm. 
The program area is 86.05 cm², so that the length of the recordable spiral is 86.05/1.6 = 5.38 km. With a scanning speed of 1.2 m/s, the playing time is 74 minutes, or around 650 MB of data on a CD-ROM. If the disc diameter were 115 mm, the maximum playing time would have been 68 minutes, i.e., six minutes less. A disc with data appearing slightly more densely is tolerated by most players (though some old ones fail). Using a linear velocity of 1.2 m/s and a track pitch of 1.5 micrometre leads to a playing time of 80 minutes, or a capacity of 700 MB. Even higher capacities on non-standard discs (up to 99 minutes) are available at least as recordables, but generally the tighter the tracks are squeezed the worse the compatibility with will be.

[edit]
Data structure
The smallest entity in the CD audio format is called a frame. A frame can accommodate six complete 16-bit stereo samples, i.e. 2??2??6 = 24 bytes. A frame comprises 33 bytes, of which 24 are audio bytes (six full stereo samples), eight CIRC-generated error correction bytes, and one subcode byte. The eight bits of a subcode byte are available for control and display. Under Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation (EFM) rules, each data/audio byte is translated into 14-bit EFM words, which alternates with 3-bit merging words. In total we have 33*(14+3) = 561 bits. A 27-bit unique synchronization word is added, so that the number of bits in a frame totals 588. The synchronization word cannot occur in the normal bit stream, and can thus be used to identify the beginning of a frame. Data in a CD-ROM are organized in both frames and sectors, where a CD-ROM sector contains 98 frames, and holds 98??24 = 2352 (user) bytes.

[edit]
CD-ROM
Main article: CD-ROM
For its first few years of existence, the compact disc was purely an audio format. However, in 1985 Yellow Book CD-ROM standard was established by Sony and Philips, which defined a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM (CDR) drive.

[edit]
Manufacture
Main article: CD manufacturing
Pre-pressed CDs are mass-produced by a process of stamping, where a glass master disc is created and used to make "stampers", which in turn are used to manufacture multiple copies of the final disc with the pits already present.

[edit]
Recordable CD
Main article: CD-R

A typical 700-megabyte CD-RRecordable compact discs, CD-Rs, are injection molded with a "blank" data spiral. A photosensitive dye is then applied, and then the discs are metallized and lacquer coated. The write laser of the CD recorder changes the color of the dye to allow the read laser of a standard CD player to see the data as it would an injection molded compact disc. CD-R recordings are permanent. The resulting discs can be read by most CD-ROM drives and played in most audio CD players.

CD-RW is a re-recordable medium that uses a metallic alloy instead of a dye. The write laser in this case is used to heat and alter the chemical properties of the alloy and hence change its reflectivity. A CD-RW does not have as great a difference in the reflectivity of lands and bumps as a pressed CD or a CD-R, and so many CD audio players cannot read CD-RW discs, although the majority of stand-alone DVD players can.

[edit]
Copy protection
Main article: CD/DVD copy protection
The Red Book audio specification does not include any copy protection mechanism. Starting in early 2002, attempts were made by record companies to market "copy-protected" non-standard compact discs. Philips has stated that such discs are not permitted to bear the trademarked Compact Disc Digital Audio logo because they violate the Red Book specification. It also seems likely that Philips' new models of CD recorders will be designed to be able to record from these "protected" discs. However, there has been great public outcry over copy-protected discs because many see it as a threat to fair use. For example, audio tracks on such media cannot be easily added to a personal music collection on a computer's hard disk or a portable (non-CD) music player. Also, many ordinary CD audio players, e.g. in car radios, have problems playing copy-protected media, mostly because they use hardware and firmware components also used in CD-ROM drives. The reason for this reuse is cost efficiency.

In late 2005, Sony BMG Music sparked the Sony CD copy protection scandal when it included a form of copy protection called Extended Copy Protection ("XCP") on discs from 52 artists.[5] Upon inserting such a disc in the CD drive of a computer running Microsoft Windows, the XCP software would be installed. If CD ripper software were to subsequently access the music tracks on the CD, XCP would substitute white noise for the audio on the disc.

Technically inclined users found that XCP resembled a root kit, in that after installation, XCP went to great lengths to disguise its existence; the code even attempted to disable the computer's CD drive if XCP were forcibly removed. XCP's efforts to cloak itself unfortunately allowed writers of malware to amplify the damage done by their software, hiding the malware under XCP's cloak if XCP had been installed on the victim's machine. Several publishers of antivirus and anti-spyware software updated their products to detect and remove XCP if found, on the grounds that it is a trojan horse or other malware; and an assistant secretary for the United States' Department of Homeland Security chastised companies that would cause security holes on customers' computers.

Facing apparently unanimous resentment and class action lawsuits[6] Sony BMG issued a product recall for all discs including XCP, and announced it was suspending use of XCP on future discs. On November 21, 2005 the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued Sony BMG for XCP[7] and on December 21, 2005 sued Sony BMG for MediaMax copy protection. [8]

[edit]
References
Kees Immink, The Compact Disc Story, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 46(5), pp. 458-465, May 1998. 
Kenneth C. Pohlmann (1992). The Compact Disc Handbook. Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions. ISBN 895793008. 
Sony's official CD history 
[edit]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
Compact discCompact disc player 
SACD 
DVD-Audio 
CD-ROM 
CD-R 
CD-RW 
CD Text 
CD Video 
Video Single Disc 
Audio format 
Audio storage 
Rainbow Books 
Red Book (audio CD standard) 
Yellow Book (CD-ROM standards) 
CD+G 
ECD 
Video CD 
SVCD 
Jewel case 
miniCD 
Optical disc 
DVD 
Audio format - Audio storage 
Analog Phonograph cylinder (1870s) - Gramophone record (1895) - Reel-to-reel audio tape recording (1940s) - Vinyl record (1948) - Compact Cassette (1963) - 8-track cartridge (1964) - Microcassette (1969) - Elcaset (1976)

Digital Compact Disc (1982) - Digital Audio Tape (1987) - MiniDisc (1991) - Digital Compact Cassette (1992) - Super Audio CD (1999) - DVD-Audio (2000)


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc"
Categories: CD | 120 mm discs | Audio storage | Video storage | Digital audio

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of US$39.79 billion and 63,564 employees in 102 countries and regions. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[4][5] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most popular products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of which has achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and MSN TV.[5]

Microsoft's name, originally bi-capitalized as MicroSoft or with hyphenation as Micro-Soft, is a blend of "microcomputer software" and is often abbreviated informally as MS. The company was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.[1] After the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS.[6] The company later released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which netted several of its employees millions of dollars due to the ensuing rise of the stock price.[7][8] The price of the stock continued its rise steadily into the early 2000s. In Microsoft Windows, originally an add-on for MS-DOS, the company was selling what would become the most widely used operating system in the world; Microsoft continued to push into multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television.[9] In addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.[10]

With what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal codes of conduct for its employees.[11] One example is the "eat your own dog food" mantra, which describes the practice of using pre-release products inside the company to test them in an environment geared towards the real world.[12] Microsoft has been convicted of monopolistic business practices???the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling.[13] The slogan "embrace, extend, and extinguish" is often used to describe Microsoft's strategy for entering product categories involving widely-used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors.[14] In addition, Microsoft has been criticized for the insecurity of its software.[15] However, Microsoft has won several awards, such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." by Fortune magazine, as well as maintaining a place on the Fortune 500 list of companies as of 2006.[16]

edit this sectionContents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 1975???1985: The founding of Microsoft 
1.2 1985???1991: The rise and fall of OS/2 
1.3 1992???1995: Domination of the corporate market 
1.4 1995???1999: Foray into the Internet and other ventures 
1.5 2000???2005: Legal issues, XP, and .NET 
1.6 2005???2006: The road to Vista 
2 Product divisions 
2.1 Microsoft Platform Products and Services Division 
2.2 Microsoft Business Division 
2.3 Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division 
3 Business culture 
4 User culture 
5 Corporate affairs 
5.1 Corporate structure 
5.2 Stock 
5.3 Diversity 
5.4 Logo 
6 Criticism 
6.1 Corporate 
6.2 Technical 
7 See also 
8 References 
9 External links 






[edit]
History
See also: History of Microsoft Windows 
[edit]
1975???1985: The founding of Microsoft

Microsoft staff photo from December 7, 1978. From left to right:
Top row: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane.
Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin.
Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen.After reading the January 1, 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system.[17] Gates had neither an interpreter nor an Altair system, yet in the eight weeks before the demo he and Allen developed the interpreter. The interpreter worked at the demo and MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.[6] Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The name Microsoft, without the hyphen, was first used in a letter from Gates to Allen on November 29, 1975,[6] and on November 26, 1976 the name became a registered trademark.[17] The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").[17] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington. [17] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and would later succeed Bill Gates as CEO.[17] The company restructured on June 25, 1981, to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change of its name to "Microsoft, Inc."). As part of the restructuring, Bill Gates became president of the company and Chairman of the Board, and Paul Allen became Executive Vice President.[17]

The first operating system the company publicly released was a variant of Unix in 1980. Acquired from AT&T through a distribution license, Microsoft dubbed it Xenix and hired Santa Cruz Operation in order to port/adapt the operating system to several platforms.[18][19] This Unix variant would become home to the first version of Microsoft's word processor, Microsoft Word. Originally titled "Multi-Tool Word", Microsoft Word became notable for its concept of "What You See Is What You Get", or WYSIWYG. Word was also the first application with such features as the ability to display bold text. It was first released in the spring of 1983, and free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first program to be distributed on-disk with a magazine.[20] However, Xenix was never sold to end users, and by the mid-1980s Microsoft got out of the Unix business entirely.[18]

DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for less than US$100,000, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Due to potential copyright infringement problems with CP/M, IBM marketed both CP/M and PC-DOS for US$240 and US$40, respectively, with PC-DOS eventually becoming the standard because of its lower price.[21][22] Around 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, entitled MSX-DOS; this became relatively popular in Japan, Europe and South America.[6][23][24] Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Compaq successfully cloned the IBM BIOS. The deal with IBM allowed Microsoft to have control of its own QDOS derivative, MS-DOS, and through aggressive marketing of the operating system to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.[25] With the release of the Microsoft Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other markets. This expansion included Microsoft Press, a book publishing division, on July 11 the same year, which debuted with two titles: "Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Computer" by Peter Norton, and "The Apple Macintosh Book" by Cary Lu.[17]

[edit]
1985???1991: The rise and fall of OS/2

The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft campus today includes more than 8 million square feet (approx. 750,000 m²) and 28,000 employees.[26]The Republic of Ireland became home to Microsoft's first international production facility in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[17] In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2. OS/2 was marketed in connection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2.[27] Shortly afterwards on February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around one month later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising US$61 million at US$21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risen to US$28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[28]

Meanwhile, Microsoft began introducing its most prominent office products. Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other office applications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintosh towards the end of 1986.[6] Microsoft Works would later be sold with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Bookshelf, a reference collection introduced in 1987 that was the company's first CD-ROM product.[17][29] Later, on August 8, 1989, Microsoft would introduce its most successful office product, Microsoft Office. Unlike the model of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. While Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office were mostly developed internally, Microsoft also continued its trend of rebranding products from other companies, such as SQL Server on January 13, 1988, a relational database management system for companies that was based on technology licensed from Sybase.[17]

On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[6] The new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.[6][30] Windows at the time generated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to Windows.[31] In an internal memo to Microsoft employees on May 16, 1991, Bill Gates announced that the OS/2 partnership was over, and that Microsoft would henceforth focus its platform efforts on Windows and the Windows NT kernel.[32] Some people, especially developers who had ignored Windows and committed most of their resources to OS/2, were taken by surprise, and accused Microsoft of deception. This changeover from OS/2 was frequently referred to in the industry as "the head-fake".[33] In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly became the favored PC platform. 1991 also marked the founding of Microsoft Research, an organization in Microsoft for researching computer science subjects, and Microsoft Visual Basic, a popular development product for companies and individuals.[17]

[edit]
1992???1995: Domination of the corporate market

The Microsoft sign at the entrance of the German Microsoft campus, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 1, Unterschlei??heim, Germany. Microsoft became an international company with headquarters in many countries.During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[9][34] Some allege that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors,[35] but internal sources at Microsoft assert that the Office team did not have access to the Windows source code at the time, and relied on reverse engineering instead.[36] Although this assertion is debunked by no lesser source than a Microsoft insider writing for Microsoft Press [37] which includes numerous examples of internal communication and requests between different teams inside Microsoft - access that developers from other companies simply would not have had. Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[38] In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first two months on the market.[9][17] In October, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was released with integrated networking capabilities such as peer-to-peer file and printing sharing.[9] In November, Microsoft released the first version of their popular database software Microsoft Access.[9]


The Microsoft sign at the entrance of the Dubai Microsoft campus, Dubai Internet City. Microsoft has developed Arabic versions for most of its products.[39]By 1993, Windows had become the most widely used GUI operating system in the world.[9] Fortune Magazine named Microsoft as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S."[16] The year also marked the end of a five-year copyright infringement legal case brought by Apple Computer, dubbed Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., in which the ruling was in Microsoft's favor, the release of Windows for Workgroups 3.11, a new version of the consumer line of Windows, and Windows NT 3.1, a server-based operating system with a similar user interface to consumer versions of the operating system, but with an entirely different kernel.[9] As part of its strategy to broaden its business, Microsoft released Microsoft Encarta on March 22, the first encyclopedia designed to run on a computer.[17] Microsoft changed its slogan to "Where do you want to go today?" in 1994 as part of an attempt to appeal to nontechnical audiences in a US$100 million advertising campaign.[9]

Microsoft continued to make strategic decisions directed at consumers. The company released Microsoft Bob, a graphical user interface designed for novice computer users, in March 1995. Discontinued in 1996 due to poor sales, Bill Gates later attributed its failure to hardware requirements that were too high for typical computers; Microsoft Bob is widely regarded as Microsoft's most unsuccessful product.[40][41] DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft formed a new company, DreamWorks Interactive, to produce interactive and multimedia entertainment properties.[17] In August, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release.[9] In September, the Chinese government chose Windows to be the operating system of choice in that country, and entered into an agreement with the Company to standardize a Chinese version of the operating system.[9] Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market.[9]

[edit]
1995???1999: Foray into the Internet and other ventures

The Microsoft Network homepage, one of the most visited websites on the Internet[42]In the mid-90s, Microsoft began to expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online services, using Microsoft Passport (now called Windows Live ID) as a universal login system for all of its websites.[17][9][43] The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC. The station was launched on July 15 to compete with similar news outlets such as CNN.[9][44] Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury.[17] In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the Company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Internet from their televisions.[17] Microsoft entered the palm computing market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other palm-sized computers.[45] 1996 saw the release of Windows NT 4.0, which brought the Windows 95 GUI and Windows NT kernel together.[46]

While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. One of the most prominent of these was ActiveX, an application programming interface built on the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM); this enabled Microsoft and others to embed controls in many programming languages, including the company's own scripting languages, such as JScript and VBScript. ActiveX included frameworks for documents and server solutions.[9] The company also released the Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, which had built-in support for internet applications.[9] Later in 1997, Microsoft Office 97 as well as Internet Explorer 4.0 were released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple Computer, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as with Windows.[9] Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was released this year, including a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make it more appealing to corporate customers.[45] In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[17]

The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself.[17] The company released an update to the consumer version of Windows, Windows 98.[17] Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features specifically for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays.[47] Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company's second largest after its U.S. headquarters.[9] Finally, a great deal of controversy took place when a set of internal memos from the company were leaked on the internet. These documents, colloquially referred to as "The Halloween Documents", were widely reported by the media and go into detail of the threats that open source software poses to Microsoft's own software, previously voiced mainly by analysts and advocates of open source software. The documents also allude to legal and other actions against Linux as well as other open source software.[48][49] While Microsoft acknowledges the documents, it claims that they are merely engineering studies. Despite this, however, some believe that these studies were used in the real strategies of the company.[50]

[edit]
2000???2005: Legal issues, XP, and .NET

Microsoft India Development Center, HITEC City, Hyderabad. The India campus is the largest Microsoft campus outside the United States.[9]Microsoft in 2000 released new products for all three lines of the company's flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one its most prominent legal cases. On February 17, 2000 Microsoft released an update to its business line of software in Windows 2000, which some considered to be a significant improvement over previous versions. It provided an OS stability similar to that of its Unix counterparts due to its usage of the Windows NT kernel, and provided matching features for several of those found in the home line of the operating system including a DOS emulator that could run many legacy DOS applications.[9] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[13] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[51] and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling was later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001. On June 15, 2000 the company also released a new version of its hand-held operating system, Windows CE 3.0.[45] The main change was the new programming APIs of the software. Previous versions of Windows CE supported only a small subset of the WinAPI, the main development library for Windows, and with Version 3 of Windows CE, the operating system now supported nearly all of the core functionality of the WinAPI. The update to the consumer line, Windows Me (or Windows Millennium Edition), was released on September 14, 2000.[17] It sported several new features such as enhanced multimedia capabilities and consumer-oriented PC maintenance options,[52] but is often regarded as one of the worst versions of Windows due to installation problems and other issues. [53][41]

Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, a version that aimed to encompass the features of both its business and home product lines. The release included an updated version of the Windows 2000 kernel, enhanced DOS emulation capabilities, and many of the home-user features found in previous consumer versions. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95.[17][54] The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. Later, Microsoft would enter the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox.[17] As of 2005, the console ranked second to Sony's PlayStation 2 and ahead of Nintendo's GameCube in market share in the United States (although behind the two worldwide). The console shipped 22 million units, compared with PlayStation 2 at greater than 100 million units, and the company took a US$4 billion loss on the console.[55][56]


Bill Gates gives a presentation at IT-Forum in Copenhagen in 2004In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.[17] The initiative has been an entirely new development API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language, C#. Windows Server 2003 was launched, featuring enhanced administration capabilities, such as new user interfaces to server tools.[9] In 2004, the company released Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP specifically designed for multimedia capabilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version of Windows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers.[17] However, Microsoft would encounter more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union for allegedly abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case). Eventually Microsoft was fined ???497 million (US$613 million), ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a version of Windows that did not include the Windows Media Player.[57][58] Microsoft was also ordered to produce separate packages of Windows after South Korea also landed a settlement against the company in 2005. It had to pay out US$32 million and produce more than one version of Windows for the country in the same vein as the European Union - one with Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger and one without the two programs.[59]

[edit]
2005???2006: The road to Vista

A screenshot of the desktop in Windows Vista Build 5456Formerly codenamed "Longhorn" in the early development stages, the next planned version of Windows, Windows Vista, is in its second beta[60] and as of July 2006 is scheduled for release to consumers in January, 2007.[61] Microsoft announced the new name of the operating system at the Microsoft Global Business Conference (MGB) in Atlanta, Georgia on July 21, 2005.[62] The next version of the company's server operating system, codenamed Windows Server "Longhorn" is scheduled for release in 2007 as of March 2006 .[63] Microsoft plans to release a new version of Microsoft Office as well, called Microsoft Office 2007 (formerly known as 'Office 12'), and is set to be released along side Vista in January 2007 as of May 2006.[64] In addition to Office, the next version of Visual Studio, the company's development suite, code named Orcas, is currently available as a Community Technology Preview (CTP).[65] As of May 2006, an official release date is yet to be set for the development suite.[66]

In guise of competing with other Internet companies such as the search service Google, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service.[67] Later, in 2006, the company launched Microsoft adCenter, a service that offers pay per click advertisements, in an effort to further develop their search marketing revenue.[68]

On June 15, 2006 Gates announced his plans for a two year transition period out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008. After that date, Gates will continue in his role as the company's chairman, head of the Board of Directors and act as an adviser on key projects. His role as Chief Software Architect will be filled immediately by Ray Ozzie, the Chief Technical Officer of the company as of June 15, 2006.[69] Bill Gates stated "My announcement is not a retirement ??? it???s a reordering of my priorities."[70]

[edit]
Product divisions
To be more precise in tracking performance of each unit and delegating responsibility, Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups???each an independent financial entity??? in April 2002. Later, on September 20, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization of its original seven business groups into the three core divisions that exist today: the Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged into the Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division; the Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions groups were merged into the Microsoft Business Division; and the Mobile and Embedded Devices and Home and Entertainment groups were merged into the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division.[71][72]

[edit]
Microsoft Platform Products and Services Division

One of the logos of Microsoft Windows, one of the company's best-known productsThis division produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system. It has been produced in many versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Almost all IBM compatible personal computers designed for the consumer come with Windows preinstalled. The next planned desktop version of Windows is Windows Vista. The online service MSN, the cable television station MSNBC, and the Microsoft online magazine Slate are all part of this division. Slate was later acquired by The Washington Post on December 21, 2004. At the end of 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, the first and most popular webmail service, which it rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". Later in 1999 Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger. Along with Windows Vista, MSN is to become Windows Live.[5]

Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of programming tools and compilers. The software product is GUI-oriented and links easily with the Windows APIs, but must be specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. The current version is Visual Studio 2005. The previous version, Visual Studio.Net 2003, was named after the .NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing initiative covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's definition of .NET continues to evolve. As of 2004, .NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft Windows-based applications that use the Internet, by deploying a new Microsoft communications system, Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication Foundation). This is intended to address some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult, even impossible in some situations, to manage, install multiple versions of complex software packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure). In addition, the Company established a set of certification programs to recognize individuals who have expertise in its software and solutions. Similar to offerings from Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Novell, IBM, and Oracle Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").[5]

Microsoft offers a suite of server software, entitled Windows Server System. Windows Server 2003, an operating system for network servers, is the core of the Windows Server System line. Another server product, Systems Management Server, is a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution, and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include:

SQL Server, a relational database management system; 
Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail features; 
Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and 
BizTalk Server, for employee integration assistance and other functions. 
[5]

[edit]
Microsoft Business Division

Front entrance to building 17 on the main campus of the Company's Redmond campusThe Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a personal relational database application), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Windows-only groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software) and Microsoft FrontPage, a WYSIWYG HTML editor, and Publisher (desktop publishing software). A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote.[5]

The division focuses on developing financial and business management software for companies. These products include products formerly produced by the Business Solutions Group, which was created in April 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. Subsequently, Navision was acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2006. The group markets Axapta and Solomon, catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.[5]

[edit]
Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division

The Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft's first entry into the gaming console market[73]Microsoft has attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has developed into Windows Mobile 5. The focus of the operating system is on devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The company produces MSN TV, formerly WebTV, a television-based Internet appliance. Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home satellite television provider DirecTV. This was the main competition in the UK for British Sky Broadcasting's (BSkyB) SKY + service, owned by Rupert Murdoch. UltimateTV has since been discontinued, with DirecTV instead opting to market DVRs from TiVo Inc. before later switching to their own DVR brand.[5]

Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of Empires and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. It produces a line of reference works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta. Microsoft Zone hosts free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in tournaments. Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo in late 2001,[74] with the release of the Xbox. The company develops and publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, in addition to third-party Xbox video game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. The Xbox also has a successor in the Xbox 360, released on 2005-11-22 in North America and other countries.[75][76] With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to compensate for the losses incurred with the original Xbox. However, Microsoft made some decisions considered controversial in the video gaming community, such as selling two different versions of the system, as well as providing backwards compatibility with only particular Xbox titles[77][78]. In addition to the Xbox line of products, Microsoft also markets a number of other computing-related hardware products as well, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in most cases.[5]

The division also houses Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, one of the largest developers of Macintosh software outside Apple itself. The unit produces Macintosh versions of popular Microsoft productivity titles such as Office for Mac and Virtual PC for Mac; as well as certain Mac-specific titles such as Entourage.[5]

[edit]
Business culture

Photo of Microsoft's RedWest campusMicrosoft has often been described as having a developer-centric business culture. A great deal of time and money is spent each year on recruiting young university-trained software developers and on keeping them in the company. For example, while many software companies often place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of developers. In addition, key decision makers at every level are either developers or former developers. In a sense, the software developers at Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their company.[11]

Employees of Microsoft are expected to be comfortable with ambiguity in that they may not, for example, know with any degree of certainty when a product will ship, what it will be called, or what features will be included. Managers at Microsoft are expected to have a general attitude of long-term strategic wariness, to be ready for any challenge from the competition or the market, and to keep in mind that being the largest software company in the world is not seen as a form of safety or a guarantee of future success. For instance, future competitors could rise from other industries, or computer hardware companies could try to become less dependent on Microsoft, or consumers could decide not to upgrade their software as often.[11]

Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. Only prerelease and beta versions of products are considered dog food.[12] This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. The company is also known for their hiring process, dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" and is a process often mimicked in other organizations, although these types of questions are rarer now than they were in the past.[79] For fun, Microsoft also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at the Redmond campus. It is a spin-off of the MIT Mystery Hunt.[80]

[edit]
User culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network, often called MSDN. MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software.[81][82] In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum.[83] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006.[84][85]

Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on CompuServe). There are several of these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and other benefits.[10]

[edit]
Corporate affairs
[edit]
Corporate structure
The company is run by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people, made up of mostly company outsiders (as is customary for publicly traded companies). Current members of the board of directors of Microsoft are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Ann Korologos, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley. The ten board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting, and those who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.[86][87]

There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services; Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive Team there is also the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major staff functions of the company, including approving corporate policies. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive Officers include the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various product divisions, leaders of the marketing section, and the CTO, among others.[88][5]

[edit]
Stock
When the company debuted its IPO in March 13, 1986, the stock price was US$21.[7][89][90] By the close of the first trading day, the stock had closed at twenty-eight dollars, equivalent to 9.7 cents when adjusted for the company's first nine splits.[90] The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions.[8] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around US$119 (US$60.928 adjusting for splits).[90] While the company has had nine stock splits, the first of which was in September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until January 16, 2003.[90][91] The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents per share, followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year.[91] The company switched from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.[91]

Around 2003 the stock price began a slow descent. Despite the company's ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock continues to stagnate as of June 2006.[92][93][91][94]

[edit]
Diversity
In 2005, Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign relating to its policies concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. Partly through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender expression to its antidiscrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86% rating in 2004 to its current 100% rating, putting it among the most progressive companies in the world, according to the Human Rights Campaign.[95][96]

In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing support from Washington State's H.B. 1515 bill that would have extended the state's current antidiscrimination laws to people with alternate sexual orientations,[97] although some claim they never withdrew support and instead simply were neutral on the bill. However, under harsh criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft decided to support the bill again in May 2005.[98][99]

Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the United States to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas make it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap." Proponents of the cap cite economic and security reasons for the law.[100]

Working Mother magazine named Microsoft one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005.[16]

[edit]
Logo

Microsoft logo, mid-1980sIn 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pacman Logo" designed by Scott Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s  to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee, ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.[101]


Logo as of 2006, with the slogan "Your potential. Our passion."Microsoft's other logo depicted here, with the "Your potential, our passion" tagline below the main corporate name, is based on the slogan Microsoft had as of 2006. Around 2002, the company started using the logo in US and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan.[102] Like some of Microsoft's other actions, the slogan met its fair share of criticism. For example, in his ThirdWay Advertising Blog, David Vinjamuri states that while "This is gorgeous, touching advertising of the type that wins awards," he ends by noting that the slogan "Only reminds us what we don't like about the brand. Can it."[103]

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Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
[edit]
Corporate
Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry. Most criticism has been for its business tactics, which some perceive as unfair and anticompetitive. Often, these tactics have been described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces and extends a competing standard or product, only to later extinguish it through such actions as writing their own incompatible version of the software or standard.[14] These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments filing lawsuits against Microsoft.[104][105][106][59][58][13] Microsoft has been called a "velvet sweatshop" in reference to allegations of the company working its employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The first instance of "velvet sweatshop" in reference to Microsoft originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees.[107][108]

Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of companies that seek to implement an initiative called Trusted Computing (which sets out to increase security and privacy in a user's computer), the TCPA is decried by critics as a means to allow software developers to enforce any sort of restriction they wish over their software.

"Large media corporations, together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you" 
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation[109] 
Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights Management (DRM), and the company's total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Digital Rights Management is a technology that gives digital content and software providers the ability to put restrictions on how their products are used on their customers' machines; these restrictions are seen by the technology's detractors as an infringement on fair use and other rights.[110] Microsoft is not the only platform provider who supports DRM, however. For example, Apple Computer has been under fire from the French Government for "FairPlay," a DRM system used to control usage of content downloaded from its iTunes Music Store service.[111] The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a lower TCO than Linux and lists a variety of studies in order to prove its case.[112] Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs than Windows Server.[113] Another study by the Yankee Group claims that Windows Server cost less than Linux for those with legacy systems and more for those without. [114]

[edit]
Technical

A screenshot of the "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows 95. It is a screen encountered when Windows cannot (or is in danger of being unable to) recover from a system error.[115]Older versions of Microsoft products were often characterized as being unstable ??? versions of Windows based on MS-DOS, and later the Windows 95 kernel from the mid to late 1990s, were widely panned for their instability, displaying the Windows Stop Message, or "Blue Screen of Death", when Windows abruptly terminates an application ??? usually due to malfunctioning drivers or hardware.[115][116] While less frequent, Windows 2000 and XP are still susceptible to Blue Screens of Death.[117] Computer users not familiar with the division of responsibilities among applications, the operating system, and third-party device drivers sometimes blame Microsoft for problems that are created by third-party software, particularly poorly written and unsigned drivers; Microsoft plans to disallow unsigned drivers in the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista.[118][119][120][121]

The user interface of Microsoft products is occasionally criticized for its inconsistency and complexity, requiring interactive wizards to function as an extra layer between the user and the interface.

"It's almost like Microsoft is designing for geeks and Apple is designing for real people" 
Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research Senior Analyst[122] 
Ironically, by attempting to reduce complexity in products, Microsoft has also come under fire for making its products more accessible to those lacking advanced technical knowledge of computers and software through these same wizards, which some believe has allowed people to perform complex tasks without any underpinning knowledge.

"You can make your program do all these wonderful and complicated things, and you don't really need to understand" 
Ellen Ullman, Salon [123] 

Numerous Microsoft products, most notably Internet Explorer, are seen as being insecure to malicious attacks such as computer viruses. Rob Pegoraro, writing for the Washington Post, says that due to Windows leaving five Internet ports open for various running services such as the Messenger Service, malefactors have an easier time compromising the system.[15] A study conducted by Forrester Research refutes these claims, stating that it found that after a year of studying Windows and several Linux distributions, Windows had the fewest vulnerabilities and that "Microsoft was the only vendor to have corrected 100% of the publicly known flaws during the study's time period."[124] In an article for SecurityFocus, Scott Granneman said that as of 2004-06-17 there were 153 accumulated security holes since 2001-04-18 and that Internet Explorer "is a buggy, insecure, dangerous piece of software."[125] Mike Nash, a Microsoft Corporate Vice President, responded to Internet Explorer security concerns in a 2005 interview by stating that the version of Internet Explorer shipped with Windows XP Service Pack 2 gives it security on the same level as its competition.[126] The next planned version of Internet Explorer, 7, is scheduled to feature a security overhaul with anti-phishing and malware prevention technology.[127]

[edit]
See also
General 
Pirates of Silicon Valley - A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft. 
Microsoft 
Actimates - Set of toys developed by Microsoft. 
Pcsafety - Part of Microsoft's technical support that deals with malware and virus issues. 
Trustworthy Computing - Controversial initiative by Microsoft for increasing security and reliability on PCs. 
Ultra Mobile PC - Joint specification by Microsoft and others for a small form factor tablet PC. 
Lists 
List of assets owned by Microsoft Corporation 
List of companies acquired by Microsoft Corporation 
List of Microsoft software applications 
List of Microsoft topics 
[edit]
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^ Editor's note, MSJ August 1997. Retrieved on September 27, 2005. 
^ Robert Lemos (2002-11-07). Trust or treachery?. CNet news.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-18. 
^ David Chisnall (2006-05-06). DRM: Digital Rights or Digital Restrictions?. InformIT. Retrieved on 2006-05-18. 
^ Nicholas Carlson (2006-03-22). A French Crack at FairPlay. internetnews.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-23. 
^ Get the facts home. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Robert Jaques. "Linux fans hit back at Microsoft TCO claims", vnunet.com, 2006-02-13. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Mary Jo Foley. "Yankee Independently Pits Windows TCO vs. Linux TCO", eWeek.com, 2004-03-24. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ a b J. D. Biersdorfer. "Q & A; Blue Screen: Not 'Death,' But Annoying", New York Times, 1999-03-25. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Beginners Guides: Crash Recovery - Dealing with the Blue Screen Of Death. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Looking through Windows XP. (2001-08-23). Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
^ IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL message restarts my Windows 2000 server. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Digital Signature Benefits for Windows Users. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ How to Use Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Windows Vista Feature Focus: 64-bit Support. Retrieved on 2006-05-26. 
^ Walaika K. Haskins (2006-05-05). Learning Lessons from the Mac. NewsFactor Magazine Online. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Ellen Ullman (1998-05-12). The dumbing-down of programming. Salon. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Windows Users Have Fewer Vulnerabilities. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Scott Granneman (2004-06-17). Time to Dump Internet Explorer. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Q&A: How Microsoft Is Keeping Pace with an Ever-Changing Security Landscape. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
^ Internet Explorer 7: Security gets an upgrade. Retrieved on 2006-05-19. 
[edit]
External links
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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or (colloquially) Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is an American computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century; it was founded in 1888 and incorporated (as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R)) on June 15, 1911. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[citation needed] With almost 330,000 employees worldwide and revenues of $91 billion annually (figures from 2005), IBM is the largest information technology company in the world, and holds more patents than any other technology company.[3]

In recent years, services and consulting revenues have been larger than those from manufacturing. Significantly, IBM has also been steadily increasing its workforce in developing countries (notably, in IBM India) and retrenching in the US and Europe.[4][5][6] Samuel J. Palmisano was elected CEO on January 29, 2002 after having led IBM's Global Services, and helping it to become a business with $100 billion in backlog in 2004.[7] Palmisano replaced Louis V. Gerstner, who had held the job from 1993 to 2002, taking over from John Akers, who left during a period of financial difficulty for the company.

IBM has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories, all located in the Northern Hemisphere, with five of those locations outside of the United States.[8] IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[9]

As a chip maker IBM is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 Early years 
1.2 World War II and Holocaust era 
1.3 Airforce and airline projects 
1.4 Successes of the 1960s to 1980s 
1.5 Recent history 
2 Projects 
2.1 BlueEyes 
2.2 Eclipse 
2.3 alphaWorks 
2.4 Extreme Blue 
2.5 Gaming 
3 Culture 
3.1 Diversity and workforce issues 
4 Corporate governance 
5 See also 
6 References and footnotes 
7 Further reading 
8 External links 



[edit]
History
[edit]
Early years

The IBM Logo that was used from 1924 to 1946.IBM's history dates back decades before the development of electronic computers ??? before that it developed punched card data processing equipment. It originated as the Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR) Corporation, which was incorporated on June 15, 1911 in Endicott, New York a few miles west of Binghamton.

CTR was formed through a merger of three separate corporations: Tabulating Machine Corporation (founded 1896 in Washington D.C.), the Computing Scale Corporation (founded 1901 in Dayton, Ohio) and the International Time Recording Company (founded 1900 in Endicott, NY). The president of the Tabulating Machine Corporation at that time was Herman Hollerith, who had founded the company. The key person behind the merger was financier Charles Flint, who brought together the founders of the three companies to propose a merger and remained a member of the board of CTR until his retirement in 1930.[10]

Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, became General Manager of CTR in 1914 and President in 1915. In 1917, the CTR entered the Canadian market under the name of International Business Machines Co., Limited and in February 14, 1924, CTR changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation.

The companies that merged to form CTR manufactured a wide range of products, including employee time-keeping systems, weighing scales, automatic meat slicers, and most importantly for the development of the computer, punched card equipment. Over time CTR came to focus purely on the punched card business, and ceased its involvement in the other activities.

[edit]
World War II and Holocaust era
In 2001, author Edwin Black published IBM and the Holocaust (ISBN 0609808990), a book purporting to document how IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson acted through its overseas subsidiaries to provide the Third Reich with punch card machines knowing that the machines could help the Nazis prosecute their "Final Solution." The book alleges that, with New York's cooperation, IBM's Geneva office and Dehomag, its German subsidiary, were intimately involved in supporting Nazi atrocities. Black also claimed that these machines made the Nazis much more efficient in their efforts. The 2003 documentary film The Corporation also explores this issue.

IBM has dismissed these allegations, and a lawsuit based on them was also dismissed.[11]

During World War II, IBM manufactured the Browning Automatic Rifle and the M1 Carbine. Allied military forces widely utilized IBM's tabulating equipment for military accounting, logistics, and other War-related purposes. There was extensive use of IBM punch-card machines for calculations made at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project for developing the first atomic bombs; this has been notably discussed by Richard Feynman in his well-read book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. During the War IBM also built the Harvard Mark I for the U.S. Navy, the first large-scale automatic digital computer in the U.S.

[edit]
Airforce and airline projects
In the 1950s, IBM became a chief contractor for developing computers for the United States Air Force's automated defense systems. Working on the SAGE anti-aircraft system, IBM gained access to crucial research being done at MIT, working on the first real-time, digital computer (which included many other advancements such as an integrated video display, magnetic core memory, light guns, the first effective algebraic computer language, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion techniques, digital data transmission over telephone lines, duplexing, multiprocessing, and networks). IBM built fifty-six SAGE computers at the price of $30 million each, and at the peak of the project devoted more than 7,000 employees (20% of its then workforce) to the project. More valuable to the company in the long run than the profits, however, was the access to cutting-edge research into digital computers being done under military auspices. IBM neglected, however, to gain an even more dominant role in the nascent industry by allowing the RAND Corporation to take over the job of programming the new computers, because, according to one project participant (Robert P. Crago), "we couldn't imagine where we could absorb two thousand programmers at IBM when this job would be over someday." IBM would use its experience designing massive, integrated real-time networks with SAGE to design its SABRE airline reservation system, which met with much success.

[edit]
Successes of the 1960s to 1980s
IBM was the largest of the eight major computer companies (with UNIVAC, Burroughs, Scientific Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, RCA and Honeywell) through most of the 1960s. People in this business would talk of "IBM and the seven dwarfs", given the much smaller size of the other companies or of their computer divisions. When only Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell produced mainframes, a bit later people talked of "IBM and the B.U.N.C.H." Most of those companies are now long gone as IBM competitors, except for Unisys, which is the result of multiple mergers that included UNIVAC and Burroughs. NCR and Honeywell dropped out of the general mainframe and mini sector and concentrated on lucrative niche markets, NCR's being cash registers (hence the name, National Cash Register), and Honeywell becoming the market leader in thermostats. General Electric remains one of the world's largest companies, but no longer operates in the computer market. The IBM computer range that earned it its position in the market at that time is still growing today. It was originally known as the IBM System/360 and, in far more modern 64-bit form, is now known as the IBM System z9 (often referred to as "IBM mainframes").

IBM's success in the mid-1960s led to inquiries as to IBM antitrust violations by the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a complaint for the case U.S. v. IBM in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on January 17, 1969. The suit alleged that IBM violated the Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the general purpose electronic digital computer system market, specifically computers designed primarily for business. Litigation continued until 1983, and had a significant impact on the company's practices.


The original IBM PC (ca. 1981) 
T-REX Corporate Center was originally one of IBM's research labs where the IBM PC was created.The company hired Don Estridge at the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida. With a team known as "skunkworks", they built the IBM PC, released on August 11, 1981. Although not cheap, at a base price of $1,565 it was affordable for businesses ??? and it was business that purchased the PC. However it was not the corporate "computer department" that was responsible for this, for the PC was not seen as a "proper" computer. It was generally well educated middle managers that saw the potential ??? once the revolutionary VisiCalc spreadsheet, the "killer app," had been ported to the PC as the clone, Lotus 1-2-3. Reassured by the IBM name, they began buying the machines on their own budgets to help do the calculations they had learned at business school.

[edit]
Recent history
Year Patents granted 
2005 2941 
2004 3248 
2003 3415 
2002 3288 
2001 3411 
2000 2886 
1999 2756 
1998 2658 
1997 1724 
1996 1867 
1995 1383 
1994 1298 
1993 1087 
Click on the year to go to IBM's page of accomplishments for that year. 
On January 19, 1993 IBM announced a $4.97 billion loss for the 1992 fiscal year, which was at that time the largest single-year corporate loss in U.S. history. Since that loss, IBM has made major changes in its business activities, shifting its focus significantly away from components and hardware and towards software and services.


A chart showing IBM's revenue and net earnings in 1980 to 2003In 2002, IBM strengthened its business advisory capabilities by acquiring the consulting arm of professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company is increasingly focused on business solution driven consulting, services and software, with emphasis also on high value chips and hardware technologies; as of 2005 it employs about 195,000 technical professionals. That total includes about 350 Distinguished Engineers and 60 IBM Fellows, its most senior engineers.

In 2002, IBM announced the beginning of a $10 billion program to research and implement the infrastructure technology necessary to be able to provide supercomputer-level resources "on demand" to all businesses as a metered utility. The program has since then been implemented.[12][13]

In recent years IBM has steadily increased its patent portfolio, which is valuable for cross-licensing with other companies. In every year from 1993 to 2005, IBM has been granted significantly more U.S. patents than any other company. That thirteen-year period has resulted in over 31,000 patents for which IBM is the primary assignee.[3]

Protection of the company's intellectual property has grown into a business in its own right, generating over $10 billion dollars to the bottom line for the company during this period.[14][15] A 2003 Forbes article quotes Paul Horn, head of IBM Research, saying that IBM has generated $1 billion in profit by licensing intellectual property.[16]

In 2004, IBM announced the proposed sale of its PC business to Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, for $650 million US in cash and $600 million US in Lenovo stock. The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in March 2005, and completed in May 2005. IBM will have a 19% stake in Lenovo, which will move its headquarters to New York State and appoint an IBM executive as its chief executive officer. The company will retain the right to use certain IBM brand names for an initial period of five years. As a result of the purchase, Lenovo inherited a product line that featured the ThinkPad, a line of laptops that had been one of IBM's most successful products.

Of late, IBM has shifted much of its focus to the provision of business consulting & re-engineering services from its hardware & technology focus. The new IBM has enhanced global delivery capabilities in consulting, software and technology based process services - and this change is reflected in its top-line.[17]

IBM is currently part of the Cell Project (together with Sony), a next generation processor architecture designed for multimedia, hi-def and gaming content.

On June 20, 2006, IBM and Georgia Institute of Technology jointly announced a new record in silicon-based chip speed at 500GHz. This was done by freezing the chip to -451 °F (-268 °C) and is not comparable to CPU speed. The chip operated at circa 350GHz at room temperature.[18]

[edit]
Projects
[edit]
BlueEyes
BlueEyes[19] is the name of a human recognition venture initiated by IBM to allow people to interact with computers in a more natural manner. The technology aims to enable devices to recognize and use natural input, such as facial expressions. The initial developments of this project include scroll mice and other input devices that sense the user's pulse, monitor his or her facial expressions, and the movement of his or her eyelids.

[edit]
Eclipse
Main article: Eclipse (software)
Eclipse is a platform-independent software framework written in the Java programming language. Eclipse was originally a proprietary product developed by IBM as an successor of its VisualAge family of tools. Eclipse is nowadays managed by the non-profit Eclipse Foundation and the source code is release under the free software/open source license Eclipse Public License.

[edit]
alphaWorks
Free software available at alphaWorks, IBM's source for emerging software technology:

Flexible Internet Evaluation Report Architecture: A highly flexible architecture for the design, display, and reporting of Internet surveys. 
History Flow Visualization Application: A tool for visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors. 
IBM Performance Simulator for Linux on POWER: A tool that provides users of Linux on Power a set of performance models for IBM's POWER processors. 
Database File Archive And Restoration Management: An application for archiving and restoring hard disk files whose file references are stored in a database. 
Policy Management for Autonomic Computing: A policy-based autonomic management infrastructure that simplifies the automation of IT and business processes. (This is an ETTK technology.) 
FairUCE: A spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender identity instead of filtering content. 
Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) SDK: A Java SDK that supports the implementation, composition, and deployment of applications working with unstructured information. 
[edit]
Extreme Blue
Designed as a cross-disciplinary high-profile technology initiative, Extreme Blue is designed to pair up experienced IBM engineers, talented interns, and business managers to develop high-value technology. Great emphasis is placed on emerging business needs and the technologies that can solve them. Sites are operated in San Jose, California, Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as outside the United States.

These projects tend to involve rapid-prototyping of high-profile software or hardware projects and business opportunities. Entry is competitive, both for interns and for IBM employees seeking career growth opportunities with a management focus.

[edit]
Gaming
IBM develops processing chips for gaming consoles. The Xbox 360 contains IBM's tri-core chipset (codenamed "Waternoose"). At the request of Microsoft, IBM was able to design the chip and ramp up to production volumes in less than 24 months (with co-production at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in Singapore.)[20] Meanwhile, Sony's PlayStation 3 will feature the Cell, a new chip designed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony in a joint venture. The Cell is already slated for use in other systems (Toshiba plans to use it on HDTVs), unlike the Xbox 360 chip, whose plans are owned by Microsoft. The Nintendo Wii will, like its predecessor the GameCube, feature an IBM chip (codenamed "Broadway").

In May 2002, IBM and Butterfly.net, Inc. announced the Butterfly Grid, a commercial grid for the online video gaming market.[21] In March 2006, IBM announced separate agreements with Hoplon Infotainment, Online Game Services Incorporated (OGSI) and RenderRocket. The deals included on-demand (for Hoplon Infotainment and RenderRocket) and blade servers (for OGSI).[22]

[edit]
Culture
IBM has often been described as having a sales-centric or a sales-oriented business culture. Traditionally, many of its executives and general managers would be chosen from its sales force. In addition, middle and top management would often be enlisted to give direct support to salesmen in the process of making sales to important customers.

For most of the 20th century, a blue suit, white shirt, and a dark tie was the public uniform of IBM employees. But by the 1990s, IBM relaxed these codes; the dress and behavior of its employees does not differ appreciably from that of their counterparts in large technology companies.

In 2003, IBM embarked on an ambitious project to rewrite company values using its "Jam" technology -- Intranet-based online discussions on key business issues for a limited time, involving more than 50,000 employees over 3 days in this case. Jam technology includes sophisticated text analysis software (eClassifier) to mine online comments for themes, and Jams have now been used six times internally at IBM. As a result of the 2003 Jam, the company values were updated to reflect three modern business, marketplace and employee views: "Dedication to every client's success", "Innovation that matters - for our company and for the world", "Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships."[23]

In 2004, another Jam was conducted in which more than 52,000 employees exchanged best practices for 72 hours. This event was focused on finding actionable ideas to support implementation of the values identified previously. A new post-Jam Ratings event was developed to allow IBMers to select key ideas that support the values. (For further information, see Harvard Business Review, December, 2004, interview with IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano.)

IBM's culture has been recently influenced by the open source movement. The company invests billions of dollars in services and software based on Linux through the IBM Linux Technology Center. This includes over 300 Linux kernel developers.[24] IBM's open source involvement has not been trouble-free, however; see SCO v. IBM.

[edit]
Diversity and workforce issues
IBM's efforts to promote workforce diversity and equal opportunity date back at least to World War I, when the company hired disabled veterans. IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005 (the other company being Hewlett-Packard).[25][26]

The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing, although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States. Alliance@IBM, part of the Communications Workers of America, is trying to organize IBM in the U.S. with very little success.

In the 1990s, two major pension program changes, including a conversion to a cash balance plan, resulted in an employee class action lawsuit alleging age discrimination. IBM employees won the lawsuit and arrived at a partial settlement, although appeals are still underway.

Historically IBM has had a good reputation of long-term staff retention with few large scale layoffs. In more recent years there have been a number of broad sweeping cuts to the workforce as IBM attempts to adapt to changing market conditions and a declining profit base. After posting weaker than expected revenues in the first quarter of 2005, IBM eliminated 14,500 positions from its workforce, predominantly in Europe. On June 8, 2005, IBM Canada Ltd. eliminated approximately 700 positions. IBM projects these as part of a strategy to 'rebalance' its portfolio of professional skills & businesses. IBM India and other IBM offices in China, the Philippines and Costa Rica have been witnessing a recruitment boom and steady growth in number of employees.

On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to formally commit to not using genetic information in its employment decisions. This came just a few months after IBM announced its support of the National Geographic's Genographic Project.

[edit]
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of IBM are: Soudeh Jahankhani, Cathleen Black, Ken Chenault, Juergen Dormann, Michael Eskew, Shirley Ann Jackson, Charles F. Knight, Minoru Makihara, Lucio Noto, James W. Owens (effective 1 March 2006), Samuel J. Palmisano, Joan Spero, Sina Jahankhani, Sidney Taurel, Charles Vest, and Lorenzo Zambrano.

[edit]
See also
IBM PC compatible (or IBM clone) 
List of IBM acquisitions and spinoffs 
List of IBM products 
[edit]
References and footnotes
^ a b c IBM Stock Report. Morningstar, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-06-27. 
^ a b c IBM: Company Overview. Reuters. Retrieved on 2006-06-27. 
^ a b IBM maintains patent lead, moves to increase patent quality. (2006-01-10). 
^ Big Blue shifts. (2006-06-25). 
^ IBM wakes up to India's skills. (2006-06-25). 
^ IBM cuts 13000 employees, mostly in Europe. (2006-06-25). 
^ Personal biography. (March 2006). 
^ Worldwide IBM Research Locations. IBM. Retrieved on 2006-06-21. 
^ Awards & Achievements. IBM. Retrieved on 2006-07-01. 
^ IBM Archives: Charles R. Flint. 
^ IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit. IBM (2001-02-14). 
^ Spooner, John G.; Sandeep Junnarkar (2002-10-30). IBM talks up 'computing on demand'. CNET. 
^ Lamonica, Martin (2004-03-02). IBM fills in on-demand picture. CNET. 
^ John Teresko (2003-03-01). IBM's Patent/Licensing Connection. IndustryWeek. 
^ Patent Licensing: Another Way to Enhance Return on Investment. Inc. (magazine) (2001-08-09). archived from the original on 2002-07-16} 
^ IBM's Path From Invention To Income. Forbes (2003-08-07). 
^ Can Big Blue Succeed In BPO?. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (2004-12-01). 
^ Toon, John (2006-06-20). Georgia Tech/IBM Announce New Chip Speed Record. Georgia Institute of Technology. 
^ IBM Almaden Research Center. 
^ IBM delivers Power-based chip for Microsoft Xbox 360 worldwide launch. IBM (2005-10-25). 
^ Butterfly and IBM introduce first video game industry computing grid. IBM (2002-05-09). 
^ IBM joins forces with game companies around the world to accelerate innovation. IBM (2006-03-21). 
^ Samuel J. Palmisano (2004-04-27). Speeches. IBM. 
^ Farrah Hamid (2006-05-24). IBM invests in Brazil Linux Tech Center. LWN.net. 
^ 100 best companies for working mothers 2004. Working Mother Media, Inc.. archived from the original on 2004-10-17 
^ 100 best companies 2005. Working Mother Media, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-06-26. 
Gerstner, Jr., Louis V. (2002). Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-715448-8. 
Black, Edwin (2001-02-12). IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0609607995, 528. 
[edit]
Further reading
Robert Sobel (1981) IBM: Colossus in Transition 
Robert Sobel (1981) Thomas Watson, Sr.: IBM and the Computer Revolution, biography of Thomas J. Watson 
Tauqeer Ahmed Khan (2001) IBM vs. Pakistan: The Struggle for the Future 
[edit]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
International Business MachinesOfficial website, including links for News, Press Room, Syndicated Information, On Demand Business, eServers, Grid computing, alphaWorks, and History 
The IBM Songbook; Ever Onward (needs Flash) 
IBM Research, with links to Cambridge, Massachusetts and Zurich facilities, among others 
IBM Antitrust Suit Records 1950-1982 
Linux on IBM Laptops (user experiences) 
Linux on IBM laptops 
IBM Jargon Dictionary 
IBM Compatibles 
developerWorks - IBM's resource for software developers, including blogs 
power.org 
IBM Executive Compensation 
IBMeye fan blog 
History of IBM Watson Research Laboratory at Columbia University 
IBM[ Hide ]
Hardware Products: Cell microprocessor | IBM PC | IBM Power
Software Products: AIX | DB2 | Lotus Notes | OS/2 | WebSphere | IBM Workplace
See also: IBM India | IBM PC compatible | IBM Public License | List of IBM acquisitions | List of IBM products

Annual Revenue: $91.1 billion USD (FY 2005) | Employees: 329,373 (2005) | Stock Symbol: NYSE: IBM | Website: www.ibm.com

  Major computing companies  v·d·e  

Hardware companies: AMD - Cisco - Dell - Intel - Motorola - Nokia - Samsung - Sony - TI - Toshiba 
Software companies: Amazon - eBay - Google - Novell - Oracle - SAP - Yahoo! 
Hardware/software companies: Apple - EMC - HP - IBM - Microsoft - Sun 


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM"
Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | 1911 establishments | Companies based in New York | Dow Jones Industrial Average | Electronics companies of the United States | Fortune 1000 | IBM | UML Partners

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## kenwood (Jul 21, 2006)

jesus i go workout for an hour and i comeback and this crap is at 10pages lol


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

So much info this should be a sticky son!


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY.pk, TYO: 7974 ) is a multinational corporation founded on November 6,[citation needed] 1889 in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name.[1] In the mid-twentieth century, the company tried several small niche businesses, such as a love hotel and a taxi company.[2] Over the years, it became a video game company, growing into one of the most powerful in the industry. Aside from video games, Nintendo is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington. Nintendo also purchased a sizable portion of Gyration Inc, a company specializing in gyros and motion sensors, in 2001. Currently, Nintendo's main competitors on the gaming front are Sony and Microsoft.

Nintendo has the reputation of historically being both the oldest intact company in the video game console market and one of the most influential and well-known console manufacturers, as well as being the most dominant entity in the handheld console market. They first started making home video game machines in the Japanese market in 1977, and progressed to the North American market in 1985, finally arriving in the European market in 1986. Over time Nintendo has manufactured five "Color TV Brand" dedicated consoles, as well as five other home video game consoles ??? Famicom/NES, the Super Famicom/Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the present GameCube and the upcoming Wii. This is in addition to a plethora of different handheld portables, as well as seven versions of their popular Game Boy, the Game & Watch, the Pokémon Mini, the Nintendo DS and the ill-fated Virtual Boy. They have published over 250 games for their own consoles (and produced two games for the Atari 2600), directly developing at least 180 of them. Nintendo have sold over two billion games worldwide.

Nintendo's mascot is Mario, who was created by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Nintendo is known for its loyal fanbase, similar in dedication to the following of Apple Computer.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 1969???1983 
1.2 1984???1989 
1.3 1990???1995 
1.4 1996???2001 
1.5 2002???Present 
1.6 Nintendo 64 
1.7 Nintendo GameCube 
1.8 Wii 
2 Handheld consoles 
2.1 Game Boy 
2.2 Nintendo DS, the Third Pillar 
3 Other hardware 
4 People 
5 Notable software and franchises 
6 Divisions 
6.1 First-party 
6.2 Second-party 
6.3 Devoted third-party companies 
7 Arcade games released by Nintendo 
8 Anime 
9 Offices and locations 
10 See also 
11 References 
12 External links 



[edit]
History
Nintendo started as a small Japanese business by Fusajiro Yamauchi near the end of 1889 as Nintendo Koppai. The name "Nintendo" roughly translates as "leave luck to heaven", "heaven blesses hard work", "in heaven's hands", or "work hard, but in the end it's in heaven's hands." A different, looser translation was given as "We work for the people to make the people happy" (from Nintendo Power magazine). Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The cards, which were all handmade, soon began to gain popularity and Yamauchi had to hire assistants to mass produce cards to keep up.


The original Nintendo logo that was used on playing cards.In 1929, Yamauchi retired from the company and allowed his son-in-law, Sekiryo Yamauchi, to take over the company as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Yamauchi established a joint venture with another company and thus renamed the company Yamauchi Nintendo & Company. In 1947, Sekiryo established the company Marufuku Company, Ltd., to distribute the Hanafuda cards, as well as several other brands of cards that had been introduced by Nintendo.

Hiroshi Yamauchi, the grandson of Sekiryo Yamauchi, took office as the president of Nintendo during the year of 1949. He renamed Yamauchi Nintendo & Company Nintendo Playing Card Company, Limited., and, in 1951 he renamed their distribution company, Marufuku Company, Limited, to Nintendo Karuta Company, Limited.

In 1959, Nintendo struck a deal with Disney to have them allow Nintendo to use Disney's characters on Nintendo's playing cards. The deal was a success and sold at least 600,000 cards in a single year.

Following this, in 1963, Nintendo Playing Card Company Limited. was renamed Nintendo Company, Limited by Hiroshi and Nintendo began to experiment in other areas of business. During the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo founded a taxi company and a "love hotel", as well as producing toys, games and several other things (including a vacuum cleaner, Chiritory, which was later seen as a two-player game in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ in 2003). Both the taxi company and love hotel ended in failure and were eventually closed.

In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi as an assembly line worker. It wasn't known however, that Yokoi would soon become a famed engineer.


The Nintendo Game & Watch unit, Donkey Kong when closed. 
The Nintendo Game & Watch unit, Donkey Kong when open.[edit]
1969???1983
This was the beginning of a major new era for Nintendo. As a tinkerer, Gunpei had been experimenting with new toy technology and in the 1970s developed "The Ultra Hand"; this would be one of Nintendo's earliest toy blockbusters, selling over a million units. Seeing that Gunpei had promise, Hiroshi Yamauchi pulled Gunpei off assembly line work. Soon after, Gunpei produced successful toys like an arcade light gun, a love tester machine and a baseball toss-catch game.

The 1970s also saw the hiring of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who (along with Gunpei) would become a living legend in the world of gaming and the secret to Nintendo's longevity. Gunpei began to mentor Miyamoto during this period of time in R&D, teaching him all he knew. Nintendo at this time saw how successful video games were, and began to dabble in them; they created several arcade video games (such as Radarscope) and five dedicated home console video games.

The early 1980s saw Nintendo's video game division (led by Gunpei) creating some of its most famous arcade titles- the massively popular Donkey Kong was created in 1981 and released in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems. This release method would be used on several later Nintendo games, including the original Mario Bros. Nintendo's arcade and home game business activities were in addition to Nintendo testing the consumer handheld video game waters with the Game and Watch.

[edit]
1984???1989
In July 1984, Nintendo released their Famicom (Family Computer) system in Japan, which was their first attempt at a cartridge-based video game console. The system was very successful, selling over 500,000 units within two months. The console was also technically superior and inexpensive when compared to its competitors, priced at about $100 USD. However, after a few months of the consoles selling well, Nintendo received complaints that some Famicom consoles would freeze when the player attempted to play certain games. The fault was found in a malfunctioning chip and Nintendo decided to recall all Famicon units currently on store shelves, which cost them almost half a million USD.

By 1985, the Famicom had proven to be a huge continued success in Japan. However, Nintendo also encountered a problem with the sudden popularity of the Famicom ??? they did not have the resources to manufacture games at the same pace they were selling them. To combat this, Yamauchi decided to divide his employees into three groups, the groups being Research & Development 1 (R&D 1), Research & Development 2 (R&D 2) and Research & Development 3 (R&D 3). R&D 1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi, R&D 2 was headed by Masayuki Uemura, and R&D 3 was headed by Genyo Takeda. Using these groups, Yamauchi hoped Nintendo would produce a small amount of high quality games rather than a large amount of average quality games.


The Nintendo Famicom, released in 1984, received a warm welcome from the Japanese economy.During this period of time, Nintendo rekindled their desire to release the Famicom in the USA. Since the company had very little experience with the United States market, they had previously attempted to contract with Atari for the system's distribution in 1983. However, a fiasco involving Coleco and Donkey Kong soured the relationship between the two during the negotiations, and Atari refused to back Nintendo's console. The video game crash soon took out not only Atari, but the vast majority of the American market itself. Nintendo was on its own.

Nintendo was determined not to make the same mistakes in the U.S. that Atari had. Because of massive influxes of games (games that were regarded as some of the worst ever created), gaming had almost completely died out in America. Nintendo decided that to avoid facing the same problems, they would only allow games that received their "Seal of Quality" to be sold for the Famicom, using a chip called 10NES to "lockout" or prevent unlicensed games from working.

In 1985, Nintendo announced that they were releasing the Famicom worldwide ??? except under a different name ??? the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) ??? and with a different design. In order to ensure the localization of the highest-quality games by third-party developers, Nintendo of America limited the number of game titles third-party developers could release in a single year to five. Konami, the first third-party company that was allowed to make cartridges for the Famicom, later challenged this rule by creating a spinoff company, Ultra Games, to release additional games in a single year, although other manufacturers followed the same tactic as Konami. In this year, Super Mario Bros. was also released for the Famicom in Japan and became a large success.


The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in 1985, One of the most popular systems of its time.Nintendo test marketed the Nintendo Entertainment System in the New York area on October 18, 1985. Following immediate success, they soon began shipping the NES nationwide in February 1986, along with 15 games, sold separately. In the U.S. and Canada, it outsold its competitors on a ten to one scale. This was also the year that Metroid (Japan) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Japanese version) were released.

In 1988, Nintendo of America unveiled Nintendo Power, a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo that served to advertise new games. The first issue published was July/August edition, which spotlighted the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo Power is still being published today with its two-hundredth issue recently issued in Feb. '06.

In 1989, Nintendo (which had seen a large amount of success from the Game and Watch) released the Game Boy (both created by Gunpei Yokoi), along with the accompanying game Tetris (widely considered one of the greatest and most addictive games of all time). With a good price, a popular game and durability (unlike the prior Microvision from Milton Bradley, which was prone to static and screen rot), the Game Boy sold extremely well. In fact, it eventually became the best selling portable game system of all time, a record it holds to this day. Later, Super Mario Land was also released for the Game Boy, which sold 14 million copies worldwide. 1989 was also the year that Nintendo announced a sequel to the Famicom, to be called the Super Famicom.

By the end of the 1980s the courts found Nintendo guilty of anti-trust activities because it had abused its relationship with third-party developers and created a monopoly in the gaming industry by not allowing developers to make games for any other platforms. They changed this rule during the Super NES era, allowing Sega to start a massive console war against Nintendo with the Sega Genesis and Game Gear. This would occur once more in 1996, when Sony released the PlayStation.

[edit]
1990???1995

The original North American SNES (circa 1991).The Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990. The system's launch was widely successful, and the Super Famicom was sold out across Japan within three days. In August 1991, the Super Famicom was launched in the U.S. under the name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" (SNES). The SNES was released in Europe in 1992.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System followed in the steps of its predecessor, sporting a relatively low price and somewhat high technical specifications for its era (although its processor was technically slower than the Genesis it competed against). The controller of the SNES had also improved over that of the NES, as it now had rounded edges and several new buttons.

In Japan, the Super Famicom easily took control of the gaming market. In the U.S., due to a late start and an aggressive marketing campaign by Sega, Nintendo saw its market share take a precipitous plunge from 90-95% with the NES to a low of approximately 35% against the Sega Genesis. Over the course of several years, the SNES in North America eventually overtook the Sega Genesis (in annual, but not cumulative, sales figures), thanks to franchise titles such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Street Fighter 2, and the Final Fantasy series. In the U.S., the Genesis outsold the SNES. However, total worldwide sales of the SNES were higher than the Genesis.

In 1992, Gunpei Yokoi and the rest of R&D 1 began planning on a new virtual reality console to be called the Virtual Boy. Hiroshi Yamauchi also bought shares of the Seattle Mariners in 1992.

In 1993, Nintendo announced plans to develop a new 64-bit console codenamed Project Reality that would be capable of rendering fully 3D environments and characters. In 1994, Nintendo also claimed that Project Reality would be renamed Ultra 64 in the US. The Ultra 64 moniker was unveiled in arcades on the Nintendo branded fighting game Killer Instinct and the racing game Cruisin' USA. Killer Instinct was later released on the SNES. Soon after, Nintendo realized they had mistakenly chosen a name for their new console that the Konami corporation owned the rights to. Specifically, only Konami would have the rights to release games for the new system called Ultra Football, Ultra Tennis, etc. So, in 1995 Nintendo changed the final name of the system to the Nintendo 64, and announced that it would be released in 1996. They later showed previews of the system and several games, including Super Mario 64, to the media and public.

1995 is also the year that Nintendo purchased part of Rareware, a choice that would prove to be a wise investment.


Nintendo released the Virtual Boy to much hype and fanfare in 1995. It was, however, unsuccessful.In the mid-90s Nintendo of America eased up on its stringent policies on blood and violence. After Sega created the Mega CD (Sega CD in North America) add on for its 16-bit machine, Nintendo initially contracted with Sony to develop an add-on CD-ROM drive for the SNES, but afraid that Sony would get all the profit from the CD-ROM media, and also surprised at the failure of Sega's Mega CD, Nintendo terminated the contract and went with Philips. Nintendo announced their alliance with Philips at the same conference that Sony announced their CD-ROM drive. Nothing happened about the add-on drive in regard to the SNES, but Sony took the time and research and began to spin it off into a new product, the PlayStation. Philips took a similar route and developed the far less successful CD-i. Since Philips had already gained license to create games using Nintendo's exclusive characters, games from series such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda appeared on the CD-i, though most fans discard them from being part of the series due to their entirely third-party development and poor quality. The deal between Philips and Nintendo eventually fell through, and the CD-i was seen as another ill-fated attempt by Philips to enter the computer market.

In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in Japan. The console sold poorly, but Nintendo still said they had hope for it and continued to release several other games and attempted a release in the U.S., which was another disaster.

Also in 1995, Nintendo found themselves in a competitive situation. Competitor Sega introduced their 32-bit Saturn, while newcomer Sony introduced the 32-bit PlayStation. Sony's fierce marketing campaigns ensued, and it started to cut into Nintendo and Sega's market share.

[edit]
1996???2001
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 (N64) was released in Japan and became a huge hit, selling over 500,000 units on the first day of its release. On September 29, 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in the U.S. and Canada, and it too was a success. On December 1, 1999 Nintendo released an add-on to the Nintendo 64 in Japan, titled the Nintendo 64DD, although it never saw the light of day in the U.S.


The exterior of Nintendo's main research center. It is only a few blocks away from the company's main headquarters.Nintendo followed with the release of the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version of the original Game Boy. About a week after the release of the Game Boy Pocket, Gunpei Yokoi resigned from his position at Nintendo. Gunpei Yokoi helped in the creation of a competitor system named the Wonderswan, utilizing the skills he gained in the creation of the Game Boy.

In 1996, Pocket Monsters (known as "Pokémon" in the North America and Europe) was released in Japan to a huge following. The Pokémon franchise (created by Satoshi Tajiri), was proving so popular that for a brief time, Nintendo took back their place as the supreme power in the games industry.

October 13, 1998 was the day that Game Boy Color was released in Japan, with releases in North America and Europe a month later. Days before Game Boy Color was released in Japan, Gunpei Yokoi - the original creator of Game Boy - died tragically in a car accident at the age of 57.

Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance in Japan on March 21, 2001. This was followed by the North American launch on June 11 and the European launch on June 22. Nintendo released their GameCube home video game console on September 14, 2001 in Japan. It was released in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002 and in Australia on May 17, 2002.

[edit]
2002???Present
In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down as the president of Nintendo and named Satoru Iwata his successor. Also, Nintendo and Chinese-American scientist Doctor Wei Yen co-founded iQue, a company that manufactures and distributes official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand.

During this same year, Nintendo's aggressive business tactics in Europe would catch up to them. The European Commission determined that Nintendo had engaged in anticompetitive price-fixing business practices dating at least as far back as the early 90s. This resulted in a heavy fine being laid against the company- 18 million euros, one of the largest antitrust fines applied in the history of the commission. [1]

In May of 2004, Nintendo announced plans to release a new brand of handheld, unrelated to the Game Boy ??? featuring two screens, one of which was touch-sensitive. The Nintendo DS, released on November 21, 2004, received over three million pre-orders. In addition to the touch screen, the DS can also create three-dimensional graphics, similar to those of the Nintendo 64, although its lack of hardware support for texture filtering results in more pixelated graphics than on the Nintendo 64.

President Satoru Iwata merged all of Nintendo's software designers under the EAD division; this was done to allocate more resources to Shigeru Miyamoto. As of 2005 Nintendo's internal development divisions are comprised of the following four groups (read Nintendo development divisions for more information):

Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development 
Nintendo Integrated Research & Development 
Nintendo Software Production & Development 
Nintendo Technology & Development 
On May 14, 2005, Nintendo started up its first retail store, Nintendo World, at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. It consists of two stories, and contains many kiosks of GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. There are also display cases filled with things from Nintendo's past, including Hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo's first product. They celebrated the grand opening with a block party at Rockefeller Plaza.

At E3 in May of 2005, Nintendo displayed the first prototype for their 'next-generation' system, codenamed the Nintendo Revolution (now known as the Wii), though hiding its controller until the Tokyo Game Show later that year.

On January 26, 2006, Nintendo announced a new version of their Nintendo DS handheld, called the Nintendo DS Lite, which is designed to be smaller and lighter and feature a brighter screen. It was launched in Japan on March 2, 2006.

On May 25, 2006, Reggie Fils-Aime was promoted to the President and CEO of Nintendo of America, Inc. [2]

On June 11, 2006, Nintendo released their update to the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo DS Lite, in North America, also on this day Nintendo opened its official US press site to the public which continued until June 17, 2006.

On June 23, 2006, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite in Europe.

On July 7, 2006, Nintendo officially opened a South Korean subsidiary in the country's capitol of Seoul, replacing Daiwon as the official distributor of Nintendo products in South Korea.

[edit]
Nintendo 64
Main article: Nintendo 64
In 1996, Nintendo released a third console, the Nintendo 64 (N64), which featured vastly improved three dimensional graphics and a new, compact analog stick (called the control stick). Nintendo chose to remain with the cartridge medium, a surprising move, especially considering their competition's choice of emerging CD-ROM storage mediums. This may have adversely affected the number of games published on the Nintendo 64; CD-ROMs are cheaper to produce than cartridges, meaning cheaper costs for the third party publishers ??? since Nintendo did not choose to use CD-ROMs, publishers would be more swayed to publish for Sony's PlayStation, which did use CD-ROMs. However, Nintendo retained the cartridge in light of the fact that compared to CD-ROMs, there are little to no load times and that cartridges are to an extent more expandable and can have data directly saved to them, hence abolishing the absolute need for a device such as a memory card. Despite these advantages, the drawbacks were also rumored to be the impetus for Squaresoft (now Square Enix) stopping development of any further games for Nintendo, including their well-known Final Fantasy series, and moving over to the Sony PlayStation, and later the PlayStation 2.

Nintendo used the code names Project Reality and Ultra 64 prior to the system's actual release, and these names are still used by some people. Ultra 64 was also the planned final name for a short time, but was changed to Nintendo 64 because of trademark conflicts with the software publisher "Ultra Games." Nintendo also touted new "innovative" and "groundbreaking" elements of the Nintendo 64 ??? such as its four controller ports, an analog stick, 64-bit processor, and online capabilities.

The first 3D Mario game was introduced on the N64 as Super Mario 64, which has been the archetype for almost all 3D console games to this day. Other popular games were GoldenEye 007, Super Smash Bros., a sort of Nintendo all-star fighter; and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time???widely considered to be one of the most popular games of all time. This system's games are also significant as it was here that the power of the second-party was first recognized: Rareware produced several of their most lauded games for this console (including the aforementioned GoldenEye, and also Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie.)

[edit]
Nintendo GameCube
Main article: Nintendo GameCube
The Nintendo GameCube, originally codenamed "Dolphin," is Nintendo's fourth home game console and their first disc-based console; it was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, the U.S. on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. The European launch boasted 20 titles at launch, which included Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Luigi's Mansion, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and International Superstar Soccer 2.

Nintendo continued many of their popular franchises on the system, including Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros.. The Nintendo GameCube is also responsible for several new franchises, including Pikmin, and the third-party Baten Kaitos. The GameCube revived the Metroid series with the release of Metroid Prime and its direct sequel, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes; although the games are no longer in the same style as the older Metroid games with the introduction of three dimensional graphics and first-person shooter-style gameplay. Nintendo had also gained exclusivity rights for the Resident Evil series and Capcom has released several GameCube-only Resident Evil titles, including Resident Evil 0. Eventually Capcom backed out and allowed a few of the Resident Evil titles to be released on the PS2 system, including the once GameCube exclusive Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 0 and the Resident Evil Remake still remain exclusives, on the other hand. The GameCube also saw Square Enix once again make games for Nintendo- except that it wasn't for their flagship mainstream Final Fantasy series. Instead, it was a Final Fantasy spinoff called Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

In the current console war, it is in firm second place behind the Sony PlayStation 2 in Japan, while taking third place behind the Microsoft Xbox in the American, European and Australian markets. [3]. Commentators have noted that while Microsoft and Sony lose money from every console they sell as a matter of business practice, Nintendo makes a profit from every GameCube sold. This is due to the GameCube costing less to manufacture than its selling price. As of June 2005, Nintendo has sold 20.61 million GameCubes worldwide.

[edit]
Wii
Main article: Wii
As with other console manufacturers in the industry, Nintendo is currently developing a new game console, Wii (pronounced "we" and formerly codenamed "Nintendo Revolution"). The console is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2006, and will cost no more than ¥25,000 in Japan or US$250 in America. With Wii, which is to be thought of as "We" (as in everyone), Nintendo has made its plans clear that it hopes to change the way people watch and play video games by taking gaming into a new direction, instead of merely upgrading hardware for the benefit of graphics. The double "i's" in the Wii title also symbolize two Wii remotes, further emphasizing the communal nature of the system.

The console is Nintendo's sleekest yet, about the size of three DVD cases stacked on top of each other; however, Nintendo has stated that the unveiled system is just a prototype and the final product may be even smaller. One of the many (though mostly still unknown) revolutionary aspects of the system comes from its unconventional and unique controller (sometimes known as the Freehand controller and Remote Controller, or nicknamed the Wii-mote), which in its basic form is shaped like a television remote control. The controller is based on the technology that Nintendo acquired when they purchased large portions of Gyration Inc in 2001,[citation needed] and includes a number of features, most notably, the direct pointing device which allows the system to understand six axes of movement (x, y, z, pitch, roll and yaw), allowing the console to identify the position and tilt of the controller in 3D space. The controller additionally features a port located on the bottom which several accessories may use. So far Nintendo has shown an analogue stick (called "nunchuck" by NCL president Iwata during the 2005 TGS keynote) that can be used concurrently with the main controller, a casing transforming the controller into a gun (similar to the "zapper" gun sold with the Duck Hunt game for the NES), and also a simple controller, similar to the SNES contoller, all of which slot into the port. Nintendo has also confirmed that the Wii will not support High Definition, unlike Sony and Microsoft's upcoming systems. 480p resolution will be standard however on every game (1 step lower than HD but better than Standard resolution). Nintendo is not focusing primarily on graphics for the new generation, but instead will concentrate on the quality of game play. It will not be graphically equal or comparable to those of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but will be significantly more powerful than the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox. Their goal for the Wii is to make it so anyone who picks up the controller can play, even if they have never played a game before.

Thus far, it has been confirmed that Wii will be able to play NES, SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, TurboGrafx 16 and N64 games, which will be downloadable for a fee through the Internet much like the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection but will be called WiiConnect24, which will also offer downloadable demos for Wii and Nintendo DS. As well, it will also be backward compatible with GameCube discs, and will boast a "docking station" for GameCube accessories. Wii is confirmed to be able to play DVDs with a separate attachment, and will wirelessly interface with the Nintendo DS in some way. Also confirmed is that the back of the console will have two USB ports, a first for a Nintendo Console.

A partnership between Hudson Soft and Sega announced at the 2006 GDC will also give Wii access to the backlog of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 gaming consoles. This essentially gives Wii users access to games from the entire 16-bit era.

Until E3 2006, only a small amount was known about the Wii's games lineup. However, during its press conference Nintendo unveiled a flurry of new games for the system as well as showed, for the first time, gameplay footage of games that had thus far only been announced. Spearheading Nintendo's Wii lineup are Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (also available for the GameCube), both of which will be available (alongside Wii Sports) when the system launches in Q4 2006, & Pokémon Battle Revolution. The frantic minigame collection WarioWare: Smooth Moves will be released shortly thereafter.[3] Super Mario Galaxy is a long-awaited new Mario platformer that will be released "within the first six months" of the system's launch.[4] A new entry in the popular Super Smash Bros. series, titled Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was shown and has a loose 2007 release date. Games for which footage or other press materials was presented but were not given release dates include the arcade racer Excite Truck (though it has been speculated that this title will arrive at or shortly after the system launch), the action/beat 'em up Project H.A.M.M.E.R., a new entry in the long-running strategy/RPG franchise Fire Emblem, and the survival game Disaster: Day of Crisis. Games not shown in any form but confirmed to exist at some stage in development include Wii versions of the popular Animal Crossing and Mario Kart franchises.

Among third party releases slated for the Wii are Red Steel from Ubisoft - an FPS that lets you use the unique controller to wield a gun and a sword, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, a game based on the Pixar movie Cars, and Pangya Golf. Sonic Wild Fire has been announced for the Wii, in which the player will use the controller's tilt to control Sonic the Hedgehog. Also announced was Trauma Center: Second Opinion (A sequel to the popular Nintendo DS game Trauma Center: Under the Knife) by Atlus.

[edit]
Handheld consoles
[edit]
Game Boy
Main articles/the Nintendo handheld console lineage:

Game Boy 
Game Boy Pocket 
Game Boy Light 
Game Boy Color 
Game Boy Advance 
Game Boy Advance SP 
Game Boy Micro 

Introduced in 1989, Nintendo's portable line of Game Boy systems continue to have a strong following even today. The Game Boy started strong, mostly attributed to the million selling game that introducted people to the handheld market, Tetris (which is considered by many as being among the most classic video games ever created). With several redesigns and improvements, including Pocket, Light, Color, Advance, Advance SP, and micro versions, the Game Boy is the single most successful, and oldest portable video game platform still in production. Nintendo may be retiring the Game Boy line in favor of the Nintendo DS [4]. The Game Boy has been known for putting over a dozen other portable systems out of business (including Nintendo's other attempts such as the Virtual Boy). Due to low battery consumption, durability, and a library of over a thousand games, the Game Boy line has been on the top of the portable console market and Nintendo has been the dominant market leader since its inception in 1989.

The Game Boy Player is an accessory which allows people to play Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games on the TV through the GameCube system, and the Super Game Boy accessory provided a similar ability for pre-Game Boy Advance games on the SNES.

[edit]
Nintendo DS, the Third Pillar
Main article: Nintendo DS
Main article: Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo released their Nintendo DS handheld game console first in the United States on November 21, 2004, then in Japan on December 2, 2004 and later on March 11, 2005 in Europe. In the U.S., shipments of the DS reached 500,000 within the first week, and in Japan, the figures were even more impressive, reaching the same figure within four days of its launch. It has also proven to be the fastest-selling console in European history, having sold over 1 million units in six months (250,000 of those units in Great Britain alone).

The Nintendo DS features two back lit LCD screens, the bottom of which is touch sensitive, which can create a unique style of game play. It also features a built in microphone and the ability to connect up to 16 Nintendo DS systems together wirelessly. Included in the system's firmware is a whiteboard-able local WAN instant messaging client without identity called PictoChat, and most editions of the system have bundled either the demonstration version of Metroid Prime Hunters or the commercial versions of Super Mario 64 DS, Mario Kart DS, or Nintendogs, with Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS, and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt having local wireless play. The DS can also play software designed originally for the Game Boy Advance, though since the DS lacks the serial port from earlier systems in favor of the newer wireless connection, no legacy games can be played in a networked form nor can they be linked to the GameCube. Nintendo has, however, indicated that it will be able to link wirelessly to the forthcoming Wii though no details have been released.

At the Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced that they would be launching an online service for the Nintendo DS called Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, allowing multiplayer gaming over the Internet. The online service is very different from that of its competitors' because it is free to consumers who already have an Internet connection at home or know of a Wi-Fi hot spot. As of October 18, 2005, Nintendo has partnered up with Wayport to bring free Wi-Fi access to Nintendo DS owners. As of November 14 in America, November 25 in Great Britain and on December 28th in Dublin, the launch of their Nintendo DS Internet gaming service, over 6,000 McDonald's restaurants nationwide will become free Wi-Fi hot-spots. Nintendo UK also announced plans for over 7500 British Wi-Fi hot spots, including McDonald's restaurants, football stadiums, hotels, motorway service stations, railway stations, student unions, airports, and libraries. Currently, the only games that support the Nintendo Wi-Fi service are Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk American Sk8land, Animal Crossing Wild World, Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris DS, Lost Magic, and Bleach DS (Only available in Japan). Metroid Prime Hunters is the first Nintendo DS game to use VoIP (Voice Over IP) which allows for players to chat with one another before and after Wi-Fi matches.

More Wi-Fi games, such as Star Fox Command and Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, are scheduled for Wi-Fi abilities.

Currently, the Nintendo DS has sold more than 16.73 million units worldwide [5]. Although reports vary, in terms of units sold worldwide the Nintendo DS and its redesign the Nintendo DS lite are ahead of their main competitor, the Sony PSP, which has shipped more than 17 million units. [6] It has sold over 4 million units in the U.S. alone, and another 6 million in Japan.

On January 26, 2006, Nintendo introduced a redesign for their handheld, named the Nintendo DS Lite. It was released in Japan on March 2, 2006, in Australia on June 1, 2006, in North America on June 11, 2006, and in Europe on June 23, 2006. Featuring brighter LCD screens (four adjustable levels of brightness), a sleeker and smaller case, improved buttons, thicker and longer stylus, and a slightly different layout (the power, start, and select buttons were moved and the microphone and power LEDs were moved to the center hinge). One disadvantage to the smaller size is that Game Boy Advance games stick out from the bottom slot by a few millimeters. The units were sold in Japan and via the Internet hours before stores opened. In Japan, stores had lines with more than 500 people waiting outside.

DS Lite has sold over 2.5 million units as of the week of May 29 [7][8] and at a recent press conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata apologized for the shortage of DS Lite units, proclaiming the company would now ship two million units per month. [9]

[edit]
Other hardware
Broadcast Satellaview - Only released in Japan, an add-on for the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) that allowed anyone to download games by a satellite. 
Game & Watch ??? A series of handheld games made by Nintendo from 1980 through 1991. 
Game Boy Player ??? An adapter for playing Game Boy games on the GameCube. 
Game Boy Printer 
iQue Player ??? A version of the Nintendo 64, with double the clock speed and downloadable games, released only in the Chinese market. 
iQue DS - A version of the Nintendo DS, release only in China. 
Nintendo 64DD ??? Only released in Japan, this add-on system's games are on re-writeable magnetic disks. Games released include a paint and 3D construction package, F-Zero X Expansion Kit, for creating new F-Zero X tracks, a sequel to the SNES version of SimCity, SimCity 64 and a few others. A complete commercial failure, many speculated that Nintendo released it only to save face after promoting it preemptively for years. 
Pokémon Mini ??? Unveiled in London at Christmas 2000, the Pokémon Mini was Nintendo's cheapest console ever produced; with games costing £10 ($15) each, and the system costing £30 ($45). This remains the smallest cartridge-based games console ever made. Sales of this system were rather poor, but, unlike the Virtual Boy, Nintendo made a profit on every game and system sold. 
Mobile System GB - Released in Japan, December 14, 2000. The Mobile System is an adpator to play Game Boy Color games on the cell phone. The game Pokémon Crystal was the first games to take advantage of the Mobile System. Someone can hook an adaptor to their Game Boy and connect it to a mobile phone which people can receive news, trade, and battle with other players across Japan. 
Super Game Boy ??? Adapter for playing Game Boy games on the Super NES, which would be displayed in color. 
Triforce ??? An arcade system based on Nintendo GameCube hardware, developed in partnership with Sega and Namco. 
Virtual Boy ??? The Virtual Boy used two red monochrome displays to create a virtual reality-like system. Fewer than two dozen games were released for it in the United States. 
[edit]
People
See also Nintendo people

Minoru Arakawa ??? Former president of Nintendo of America. 
Reggie Fils-Aime ??? President and COO of Nintendo of America, Inc. [10] 
George Harrison ??? Senior Vice President of marketing and corporate communications. 
Satoru Iwata ??? Current president of Nintendo (2002-present). 
Perrin Kaplan ??? Nintendo of America's Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs 
Tatsumi Kimishima ??? CEO and Chairman of the Board for Nintendo of America, Inc. [11] 
Koji Kondo ??? Composer of music tracks in many Nintendo games, including virtually every home console entry of Super Mario and Legend of Zelda. 
Shigeru Miyamoto ??? Nintendo's chief designer and video game producer. Largely known for creating many of Nintendo's most popular games including Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, and The Legend of Zelda. In 1998 Miyamoto became the first person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. 
Howard Lincoln ??? Now retired, former Chairman of Nintendo of America. 
Howard Philips ??? Creator of Nintendo Power magazine. 
Satoshi Tajiri ??? Creator of the Pokémon series. 
Yuka Tsujiyoko ??? Composer of music tracks in many Intelligent Systems games, most notably Paper Mario and the Fire Emblem series. 
Fusajiro Yamauchi ??? Founder of Nintendo in 1889. Died 1940. 
Hiroshi Yamauchi ??? Former president of Nintendo (1949???2002). 
Gunpei Yokoi ??? Best-known as the creator of the Game Boy and the Metroid series. Died 1997. 
Shigesato Itoi - Creator of EarthBound series 
Masahiro Sakurai - Creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros.. Gained recent gaming celebrity status after announcing he will be working on Super Smash Bros. Brawl and creating a site discussing which characters will be included. 
[edit]
Notable software and franchises
Related article: Franchises established on Nintendo systems

1080° Snowboarding - First appeared on the Nintendo 64. 
Animal Crossing - Also known as Animal Forest, a franchise that has developed a cult following and constantly growing install base with each installment. It has appeared on the Nintendo 64 (Animal Forest), GameCube, Nintendo DS, E-Reader, and will soon be appearing on the Wii. 
Balloon Fight/Balloon Kid - A series of games that appeared on the NES and Game Boy. It also appeared as two kinds of Game & Watch handhelds, an extra game on Animal Crossing, and the E-Reader. 
Battalion Wars - An RTS version of the Nintendo Wars franchise only on GameCube, though the developer has stated that he wishes to make a sequel for Wii. 
Battle Clash - A Super Nintendo Super Scope game. The sequel, Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, was also released, but only in the United States and Europe. 
Chibi-Robo - A series where you control a small robot that cleans up after his owners. The series includes Chibi-Robo and Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol. 
Clu Clu Land - A series that appeared on the NES. Two of the games also appeared as an extra in Animal Crossing, and there was also a game for the e-Reader. 
Cubivore - Also known as Dobutsu Bancho. Originally for the Nintendo 64 in Japan, it was ported to the GameCube by Atlus and had a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. 
Custom Robo - A science fiction action game in which the player pilots and customizes a miniature robot to battle other players in an arena called a Holosseum. 
Donkey Kong (Nintendo EAD Tokyo) - Dates back to Nintendo's original line of arcade games. Introduced Mario, back then known as "Jumpman." 
Doshin the Giant - Yet to be released in America. 
Drill Dozer - An addictive platform-puzzle game developed by GameFreak for the Game Boy Advance. 
EarthBound (called "Mother" in Japan) - The long awaited sequel, "Mother 3", was recently released in Japan on the Game Boy Advance. 
Excitebike - A series that appeared on the NES and Nintendo 64. Excite Truck wil continue the franchise on Wii. 
Fire Emblem (Intelligent Systems) - Medieval RPG series started in 1990, confined to Japan until 2003. 
F-1 Race - Has nothing to do with F-Zero; has appeared on the NES and Game Boy. 
F-Zero (Nintendo EAD) - A futuristic racing game, where pilots race in machines barely above the ground at speeds of 2000km/h. 
Game & Watch - Nintendo's oldest franchise, started on handheld systems. 
Golden Sun (Camelot) - RPG developed by a second party for the Game Boy Advance. 
Ice Climber - An old franchise featuring Popo and Nana, two parka-clad mountain climbers. 
Legend of Stafy a series based around a young starfish named Stafy. 
Kid Icarus (Intelligent Systems) - Only two games of Kid Icarus have been produced (NES, GB), though Miyamoto hinted that there will be a sequel on Wii. The main character of Kid Icarus, Pit, will also be a playable character in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. 
Kirby (HAL Laboratory, Inc.) - A typically pink (but sometimes multi-colored) puff who can copy enemy powers for his own use. Has starred in several games since his debut on the Game Boy. 
Mach Rider 
Mario (Nintendo EAD) - Nintendo's flagship franchise and main influence in the platform genre. Mario has branched out to multiple spin-offs including Mario Kart, Mario Party and Mario Tennis. 
Metroid (Intelligent Systems / Retro Studios) - One of the company's most popular franchises, featuring a futuristic bounty hunter called Samus Aran. 
Nintendogs - Puppy simulator franchise with several cameos of other Nintendo franchises 
Nintendo Wars (Intelligent Systems) - Confined to Japan until 2001; Advance Wars was not released in Japan due to 9/11 until Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 was released there on November 25th, 2004. 
Pikmin- One of Nintendo's newest franchises, only 2 installments as of summer 2006 (both on the GameCube). 
Pilotwings - Has been on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 and is rumored to make a return on the Wii. Based on flying various aircraft to complete goals. 
Pokémon (video games) (Game Freak) - Arguably the most influential (certainly the most lucrative) of Nintendo's recent franchises. The aim is to try and capture one of every species of Pokémon (currently 386 are available in standard canon) and become the strongest Pokémon trainer in the Pokémon world. 
Punch-Out!! - Has appeared on the arcades, NES, and SNES. Featuring Little Mac, you had to fight your way up the tables and become the best boxer ever. 
SimCity - The SNES version is partially owned by Nintendo along with the character, Dr. Wright, who is based on Maxis' co-founder, Will Wright (Dr. Wright has also appeared in the Game Boy Zelda games and was a trophy in SSBM). The aim is to try and run a city, keeping all the Sims in the city happy. The sequel, Sim City 64, was only released in Japan for the Nintendo 64DD. 
Star Fox (Nintendo EAD) - Has appeared on the Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube and soon to be on the DS. Star Fox is a futuristic flying fighter. 
Super Smash Bros. (HAL Laboratory, Inc.) - A fighting game that pins Nintendo's franchises up against each other. Has appeared on The Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, and will be appearing on Wii. 
Tetris Attack (Panel de Pon in Japan) (Intelligent Systems) - An original puzzle game which, despite the name, is completely unrelated to Tetris. 
The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo EAD) - One of the company's most popular franchises and widely considered to be among the best franchises ever. It has won numerous awards including several "Greatest Game of all Time" awards. 
Trauma Center series (Atlus) - The Trauma Center series is a series of video games developed by Atlus exclusively for Nintendo. The series consists of Trauma Center: Under the Knife and Trauma Center: Second Opinion. 
Wario - Spin-off character who debuted in Super Mario Land 2. Includes the Wario Land series of games, Wario's Woods, WarioWare, Inc. series, Wario Blast and Wario World. 
Wave Race - Has appeared on the original Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and Nintendo GameCube. It features people racing on Jet Boats. 
Yoshi - Spin-off character who first appeared in Super Mario World. Includes Yoshi's Cookie, Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi Touch & Go, and Yoshi Topsy Turvy, this list will also include Yoshi's Island 2 in the future. Yoshi games are usually a platform game, where he must save Yoshi's Island. 
[edit]
Divisions
[edit]
First-party
Main article: Nintendo development divisions
HAL Laboratory ??? Responsible for the Kirby franchise, Super Smash Bros. series, the Eggerland series (also known as the Adventures of Lolo series), and the development of the e-Reader. 
Intelligent Systems ??? Established in 1986 by former members of Nintendo Research & Development 1 to develop games. Responsible for Metroid, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and Nintendo Wars franchises. 
Nintendo EAD Tokyo ??? Youngest group inside Nintendo; responsible for Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy for Wii. 
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (Originally "Nintendo Research & Development 4") ??? Largest division at Nintendo. Managed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Responsible for Mario, Zelda, and F-Zero franchises. 
Nintendo Integrated Research & Development (Originally "Nintendo Research & Development 3") ??? Produced arcade games in the 1980s. 
Nintendo Licensing Division ??? Produces (and licenses) first-party games by independent developers. 
Nintendo Research & Development 1 ??? Responsible for games such as Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Super Mario Land. 
Nintendo Research & Development 2. 
Nintendo Software Technology Corporation ??? Redmond-based studio responsible for Metroid Prime: Hunters and Project H.A.M.M.E.R. 
The Pokémon Company - The division that licenses Pokémon games to different developers. 
Retro Studios ??? Austin-based studio wholly owned by Nintendo. Developer of the Metroid Prime trilogy. 
[edit]
Second-party
These second-party game companies have contracts with Nintendo to only make games for Nintendo and not its competitors. Nintendo may also own majority stock in these companies:

AlphaDream ??? developer of Tomato Adventure (Japan only), Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. 
Brownie Brown ??? Software developer consisting of former members of Squaresoft. Responsible for the Magical Vacation series, and for supporting Shigesato Itoi and HAL with Mother 3 (Japan only). 
Camelot Software Planning ??? Responsible for Golden Sun, Mario Tennis, and Mario Golf series of games. 
Creatures, Inc. (formerly known as Ape, Inc.) - Collaborated with Game Freak and Nintendo to make the Pokémon series. Also made the Game Boy Camera and the EarthBound series. 
Fuse Games ??? A British Pinball game company who made Mario Pinball Land and Metroid Prime Pinball. They are currently only making games for Nintendo as they have a contract with them. 
Game Freak ??? developer of the Pokémon video game series and Drill Dozer. 
Genius Sonority ??? Newly formed developer; responsible for Pokémon Colosseum, its sequel, Pokémon XD, and the Pokémon puzzle game: Pokémon Trozei. 
NDCUBE ??? Developer of F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and various other Game Boy Advance and GameCube titles. 
iQue ??? Responsible for Nintendo products in China, partially owned by Nintendo. 
[edit]
Devoted third-party companies
Nintendo has close ties with or owns minimal stock in these companies and has them make games with their franchises:

Artoon ??? has made Yoshi Topsy-Turvy and is currently making Yoshi's Island 2. 
Atlus ??? Ported Cubivore to the GameCube from the Nintendo 64, is the developer of the Nintendo exclusive Trauma Center series, and supported the Virtual Boy. 
Bandai ??? Recently merged with Namco; Nintendo owns stock in both companies and rumors have stated that Nintendo may attempt a takeover bid for the company. 
Capcom ??? Nintendo and Sega partially own a secondary developer to Capcom called Flagship; they helped to make the GBC and GBA Zelda games and the GBA Kirby games. Capcom are the makers of games such as Mega Man and Resident Evil. 
Hudson Soft ??? Now belongs to Konami; its first collaborated game with Nintendo was Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman, which featured Bomberman, Hudson Soft's flagship character. Hudson Soft also has collaborated with Nintendo to make the wildly popular Mario Party series, though their involvement with the Mario franchise has dated back to Super Mario Bros. Special, which was released around the same time as the Lost Levels. 
Konami ??? Konami has made games based on Nintendo's franchises such as Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. Nintendo had also arranged a collaboration with Konami and Silicon Knights, then a Nintendo second party, in the creation of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube. Solid Snake, from the Metal Gear franchise, will also make an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a special visiting character, and are developing the Wii exclusive Elebits. 
Midway Games ??? For the arcades, Midway has helped Nintendo with Killer Instinct and the Cruis'n games. 
Namco ??? Nintendo and Namco have collaborated on several games such as Pac-Man Vs. (by Miyamoto), Star Fox: Assault, Mario Superstar Baseball, and the Donkey Konga series; belongs to the Triforce arcade system. 
NIBRIS - NIBRIS is an upstart European developer devoted only to the Wii and the Nintendo DS. Its upcoming titles include Sadness and Raid over the River. 
Panasonic ??? Not a game company, it does however help Nintendo with technology and also made the Q multimedia console. 
Rare ??? Although at one time under a 49% ownership with Nintendo, Rare is now owned by Microsoft. It is responsible for such titles as Donkey Kong Country/Land/64, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Killer Instinct. The company has developed 5 titles for the Game Boy Advance while under Microsoft's roof. Rare will also be developing for the Nintendo DS. Rare's first DS project is an expansion/sequel to the well-known N64 game Diddy Kong Racing. 
Sega ??? Nintendo's former rival in the console market. Sega made F-Zero GX/AX and also belongs to the Triforce arcade system. They're responsible for games like the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Phantasy Star series, and the Alex Kidd series. They are supporting the Virtual Console (Wii) by having a "best of" selection of downloadable classics from the Sega Genesis. 
Square Enix ??? Nintendo has published Square/Square Enix's Final Fantasy games on the NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, and GameCube. Games that appeared on the GBA and GCN could also be registered on Nintendo's website (through a My Nintendo account). Square Enix has also recently announced that it will release two games for the Wii: Dragon Quest Swords and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. 
TOSE ??? Responsible for the Game & Watch Gallery series and the Legend of Stafy series. 
Treasure Co. Ltd ??? Treasure was formed by ex-Konami workers who promised they would never produce sequels of their franchises (but made a sequel to Gunstar Heroes and Radiant Silvergun (Ikaruga)). The company worked with Nintendo to make Wario World and Mischief Makers, and has also produced many Japan-only games, including Sin and Punishment. It has very close ties with both Nintendo and Sega. 
[edit]
Arcade games released by Nintendo
Arm Wrestling 
Battle Shark 
Block Fever 
Computer Othello 
Cruis'n Exotica 
Cruis'n World 
Donkey Kong 
Donkey Kong Jr. 
Donkey Kong 3 
Duck Hunt 
Excitebike 
 F-Zero AX 
F-1 Race 
HeliFire 
Hogan's Alley 
Ice Climber 
Killer Instinct 
Killer Instinct 2 
Laser Clay Shooting 
Mach Rider 
Mario Bros. 
Mario Kart Arcade GP 
 Monkey Magic 
The Nintendo Super System 
The Nintendo Vs. Series 
The Play Choice 10 Series 
Popeye 
Punch-Out!! 
Radar Scope 
Shooting Trainer 
Sky Hawk 
SF-HiSplitter 
Sheriff 
 Sky Skipper 
Space Demon 
Space Fever 
Space Fire Bird 
Space Launcher 
Super Mario Bros. 
Super Punch-Out!! 
Test Driver 
Urban Champion 
Wild Gunman 

[edit]
Anime
In November 2004, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced that Nintendo would start making anime. Its first project is an adaptation of the Hyakunin Isshu poem anthology. Also, recently Nintendo has stated that they are making an anime movie for Animal Crossing. [12]

[edit]
Offices and locations

The exterior of Nintendo's main headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.Nintendo Company, Limited (NCL), the main branch of the company, is based in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Nintendo of America (NOA), its American division, is based in Redmond, Washington, a suburb, of Seattle. It has distribution centers in Atlanta, Georgia, and North Bend, Washington. Nintendo of Canada, Ltd. (NOCL) is a based in Richmond, British Columbia, with its own distribution centre in Toronto, Ontario. Nintendo of Australia, its Australian division, is based in Scoresby, Melbourne, Victoria, and Nintendo Europe, the European division, is based in Gro??ostheim, Germany. iQue, Ltd., a Chinese joint venture with its founder, Doctor Wei Yen, and Nintendo, manufactures and distributes official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand. Nintendo is also opening Nintendo of Korea (NoK) July 7, 2006.

[edit]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
Nintendo Nintendo Portal 
History of computer and video games 
Nintendo Seal of Quality 
Nintendo Policies 
Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. 
List of video games published by Nintendo 
List of Nintendo characters 
List of Japanese companies 
Player's Choice 
[edit]
References
^ Company History. Nintendo of America. Retrieved on 2006-06-04. 
^ Nintendo History Lesson: The Lucky Birth. N-sider. Retrieved on 2006-06-04. 
^ Ringo, Jordan (2006-05-12). E3 2006: WarioWare: Smooth Moves Director Interview. Nintendo Now. Retrieved on 2006-05-18. 
^ Mario to Miss Launch. IGN. Retrieved on 2006-05-29. 
[edit]
External links
Find more information on Nintendo by searching Wikipedia's sister projects:

 Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
 Textbooks from Wikibooks
 Quotations from Wikiquote
 Source texts from Wikisource
 Images and media from Commons
 News stories from Wikinews
GameCube Café 
Nintendo Now 
Nintendojo 
Nintendopedia 
Nintendowned 
The Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) 
PlanetNintendo.it 
Nintendo Developers Hardware and Specialized Developers 
Integrated R&D | Software Planning | Licensing Division | R&E 
First-Party Software Developers 
R&D 1 | R&D 2 | EAD | Special P&D | Intelligent Systems | EAD Tokyo | NST | Retro Studios | Brownie Brown 
Second-Party Developers 
HAL Laboratory | Camelot | Genius Sonority | Creatures Inc. | AlphaDream | Game Freak | NOISE 


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo"
Categories: Companies listed on NASDAQ | Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange | 1889 establishments | Companies of Japan | Computer and video game companies | Nintendo

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
Adobe Photoshop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Photo shop)
Jump to: navigation, search
Adobe Photoshop  

Adobe Photoshop CS2 running on Mac OS X 
Maintainer: Adobe Systems 
Latest release: CS2 (9.0.1) / May 15, 2006 
OS: Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 
Use: Bitmap graphics editor 
License: Proprietary 
Website: www.adobe.com/products/photoshop 
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and, in addition to Adobe Acrobat, is one of the most well-known pieces of software produced by Adobe Systems. It is considered the industry standard in most, if not all, jobs related to the use of visual elements. It is usually referred to simply as "Photoshop". Photoshop is currently available for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows; versions up to Photoshop 9.0 can also be used with other operating systems such as Linux using software such as CrossOver Office. Past versions of the program were ported to the SGI IRIX platform, but official support for this port was dropped after version 3.


Contents [hide]
1 Features 
1.1 File formats 
2 Cultural impact 
3 Development 
3.1 Release history 
4 Alternatives 
5 Notes 
6 See also 
6.1 Related terms 
7 External links 



[edit]
Features

Simple composite image produced with various tools in Photoshop. 
Photoshop CS under Windows 2000.Although primarily designed to edit images for paper-based printing, Photoshop is used increasingly to produce images for the World Wide Web. Recent versions bundle a related application, Adobe ImageReady, to provide a more specialized set of tools for this purpose.

Photoshop also has strong ties with other Adobe software for media editing, animation and authoring. Files in Photoshop's native format, .PSD, can be exported to and from Adobe ImageReady, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Adobe Encore DVD to make professional standard DVDs, provide non-linear editing and special effects services such as backgrounds, textures and so on for television, film and the Web. For example, Photoshop CS broadly supports making menus and buttons for DVDs. For .PSD files exported as a menu or button, it only needs to have layers, nested in layer sets with a cueing format and Adobe Encore DVD reads them as buttons or menus.

Photoshop can deal with a number of different color models:

RGB color model 
Lab color model 
CMYK color model 
Grayscale 
Bitmap 
Duotone 
The most recent version, released in 2006, is version 9. This iteration of the program is marketed as "Photoshop CS2". "CS" reflects its integration with "Adobe's Creative Suite" and a number "2" because it is the second version released since Adobe rebranded their products under the CS umbrella. Photoshop CS2 features important new additions such as multiple layer selecting and "warp", a curve-friendly version of the transform tool. For the digital photography enthusiasts, the "reduce grain" filter can help to improve pictures taken in low light. In an effort to break away from previous versions of the application and to reinforce its belonging with the new line of products, Photoshop even dropped one classic graphic feature from its packaging: the Photoshop eye, which was present in different manifestations from versions 3 to 7. Photoshop CS versions now use feathers as a form of identification.


Camera RAW 3.xThe latest version comes with Adobe Camera RAW, a plugin developed by Thomas Knoll which can read several RAW file formats from various digital cameras and import them directly into Photoshop. A preliminary version of the RAW plugin was also available for Photoshop 7.0.1 as a $99 USD optional purchase.

While Photoshop is the industry standard image editing program for professional raster graphics, its relatively high suggested retail price (US $600, approximately) has led to a number of competing graphics tools being made available at lower prices. To compete in this market, and to counter unusually high rates of piracy of their professional products, Adobe has introduced a Photoshop Elements, a version of Photoshop with many professional features removed, for under $100 US; this is aimed firmly at the general consumer market since the feature cuts make it less desirable for prepress work.

[edit]
File formats
Photoshop has the ability to read and write many common raster and vector image formats. It also has several native file formats:

The PSD (Photoshop Document) format stores an image as a set of layers, including text, masks, opacity, blend modes, color channels, alpha channels, clipping paths, and duotone settings. This is a popular format that is even supported by some of Photoshop's competitors. 
The PSB format is a newer version of PSD designed for files over 2 GB. 
The PDD format is a version of PSD that only supports the features found in the discontinued PhotoDeluxe software. 
[edit]
Cultural impact

An example of deletion manipulation. The original is on the left.The term photoshopping is a neologism, meaning "editing an image", regardless of the program used (compare with Google used as a verb). Adobe discourages use of the term [1] out of fear that it will undermine the company's trademark; an alternate term which leaves out the Photoshop reference is "photochop". The term photoshop is also used as a noun referring to the altered image. This is especially popular amongst members of the websites Something Awful, B3ta and Fark where photoshopping is an institution. The goal of altering an image, subtly or blatantly, is to make it humorous or clever, often via the use of obscure in-jokes and pop culture references. Another widespread practice is putting the face of a celebrity onto a nude or pornographic image. Photoshop competitions in all these varieties have become a favorite pastime for many professional and amateur users of the software.

The term is sometimes used with a derogatory intent by artists to refer to images that have been retouched instead of originally produced. A common issue amongst users of all skill levels is the ability to avoid in one's work what is referred to as "the Photoshop look" (although such an issue is intrinsic to many graphics programs).

Even more recent is the so-called "sport" of Photoshop Tennis. A match in this hobby consists of two Photoshop artists passing back and forth (usually via email) a Photoshop image file. Each player will make changes to the file and send it back. After a predetermined number of turns an independent judge will review the edits made and declare a winner. This allows artists to both showcase and hone their Photoshop skills.

In the vein of Photoshop Tennis, artists also engage in collaboration. This hobby consists of two Photoshop artists passing back and forth (usually via email) a Photoshop image file (.psd). Each artist adds elements to the composition, working with the other to create an image. There is not usually an element of competition involved with such an activity.

With the rise of graphics tablets, most notably from Wacom, programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter have been used more and more to create original pieces of art. Using the pressure sensitive tablet can greatly improve the effects of the paint brush, eraser, or other tools. Tablets are used worldwide by professional comic book illustrators, architects, studio artists, etc. Even ILM, the special effects company that worked for the Star Wars films, used tablets combined with Photoshop in post-production.

[edit]
Development
The brothers Thomas Knoll and John Knoll began development on Photoshop in 1987. Version 1 was released by Adobe in 1990. The program was intended from the start as a tool for manipulating images that were digitized by a scanner, which was a rare and expensive device in those days.

[edit]
Release history
Version Platform Codename Release date Significant changes 
1.0 Mac OS  February 1990  
2.0 Mac OS Fast Eddy June 1991 Paths 

2.0.1 Mac OS  January 1992  
2.5 Mac OS Merlin November 1992  
Windows Brimstone 
IRIX, Solaris  November 1993 
2.5.1 Mac OS  1993  
3.0 Mac OS Tiger Mountain September 1994 Tabbed Palettes 
Layers 

Windows, IRIX, Solaris [1]  November 1994 
4.0 Mac OS, Windows Big Electric Cat November 1996 Adjustment Layers 

4.0.1 Mac OS, Windows  August 1997  
5.0 Mac OS, Windows Strange Cargo May 1998 Editable type (previously, type was rasterized as soon as it was added) 
Multiple Undo (History Palette) 
Color Management 

5.0.1 Mac OS, Windows  1999  
5.5 Mac OS, Windows  February 1999 Bundled with ImageReady 
Extract 
Vector Shapes 

6.0 Mac OS, Windows Venus in Furs September 2000 Updated User Interface 
"Liquify" filter 

6.0.1 Mac OS, Windows  March 2001 Memory usage improvements 
Paintbrush picker usability enhancements 
Clipping path save/export bug fixes 

7.0 Mac OS/Mac OS X, Windows Liquid Sky March 2002 Made text fully vector 
Healing Brush 
New painting engine 

7.0.1 Mac OS/Mac OS X, Windows  August 2002 Camera RAW 1.x (optional plugin) 

CS (8.0) Mac OS X, Windows Dark Matter October 2003 Camera RAW 2.x 
Highly modified "Slice Tool" 
Shadow/Highlight Command 
Match Colour command 
"Lens blur" filter 
Real-Time Histogram 
Detection and refusal to print scanned images of various banknotes[2] 
Macrovision copy protection based on Safecast DRM technology 

CS2 (9.0) Mac OS X, Windows Space Monkey April 2005 Camera RAW 3.x 
"Smart Objects" 
Image Warp 
Spot healing brush 
Red-Eye tool 
Lens Correction filter 
Smart Sharpen 
Vanishing Point 
Better memory management on 64-bit PowerPC G5 Macintosh machines running Mac OS X 10.4 
High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) support 
Scripting support for JavaScript and other languages 
More smudging options, such as "Scattering" 

[edit]
Alternatives
There are many other bitmap-graphics editors available, but none have come close to Photoshop's popularity among professionals. The most popular competitors in other markets are the free, open source GIMP, and the commercial packages Macromedia Fireworks, Corel Photo-Paint (bundled with CorelDRAW), Corel Paint Shop Pro and Ulead PhotoImpact. Less well-known alternatives include GIMPShop (a version of GIMP with a more Photoshop-like interface), the open source Paint.NET (although it bills itself as a replacement for Microsoft Paint), and the commercial Pixel image editor.

In cinema, CinePaint (a fork of GIMP) has gained significant market share.

With Adobe's recent acquisition of Macromedia it remains to be seen whether "Macromedia" Fireworks will remain a competing alternative product to Photoshop.

[edit]
Notes
^ http://www.sunmanagers.org/archives/1999/0973.html 
^ http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cds.html 
[edit]
See also
Photoshopping 
Photoshop tennis 
Photoshop contest 
List of bitmap graphics editors 
Comparison of bitmap graphics editors 
Digital image editing 
Digital Negative Specification 
[edit]
Related terms
2D computer graphics 
Color 
Color theory 
Digital image 
Digital watermark 
Gamut 
Graphics file format 
Image gradient 
[edit]
External links
Official Page 
Adobe Camera RAW 
The Image Culture - Christine Rosen, The New Atlantis 
For other external links, see Photoshop at the Open Directory Project 



Adobe Creative Suite 
Acrobat ??? Bridge ??? GoLive ??? Illustrator ??? InDesign ??? Photoshop ??? Version Cue 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop"
Categories: Adobe software | Adobe Creative Suite | Bitmap graphics editors | IRIX software | Mac OS software | Windows software | Technical communication tools | Digital Revolution

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
World Wrestling Entertainment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.  
Type Public (NYSE: WWE) 
Founded 1952 
Location Stamford, Connecticut, USA 
Key people Vince McMahon,Owner and Chairman
Linda McMahon, CEO
Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President of Global Media
Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Senior Vice President of Creative Writing 
Industry Professional wrestling 
Revenue  $400.1 million USD (2006) 
Operating income  $70.5 million USD (2006) 
Net income  $47.0 million USD (2006) 
Website www.wwe.com 
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) is a publicly traded integrated media (focusing in television, internet, and live events), sports, and entertainment company dealing primarily in the professional wrestling industry, with major revenue sources also coming from movies, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. Vincent K. McMahon is the owner and Chairman of the company and his wife Linda McMahon holds the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media Shane McMahon and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company. The company's global headquarters are located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, Connecticut, with international offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Toronto. The company was previously known as Titan Sports, Inc. before changing to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., and most recently becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Professional wrestling is the company's main business module. WWE is currently the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world, and holds an extensive library of videos representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The promotion has previously existed as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, preceded by the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), then the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). WWE has three brands splitting the full WWE roster; RAW, SmackDown! and ECW. WWE is also home to three of the eight internationally recognized world titles.

WWE's revenue in the last twelve months was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of May 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE as WWE.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 The Beginning/Capitol Wrestling 
1.2 World Wide Wrestling Federation 
1.3 World Wrestling Federation 
1.3.1 The Golden Age 
1.3.2 The New Generation 
1.3.3 The Attitude Era 
1.3.4 Acquisition of WCW and ECW 
1.4 World Wrestling Entertainment 
2 Championships and accomplishments 
2.1 Current champions 
2.2 Accomplishments 
2.3 Current developmental champions 
2.4 Defunct championships and accomplishments 
3 See also 
4 References 
5 External links 



[edit]
History
Main article: History of World Wrestling Entertainment
[edit]
The Beginning/Capitol Wrestling
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a boxing match in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1925, while working with Tex Rickard (who, ironically, despised wrestling to such a degree he prevented wrestling events from being held in Madison Square Garden between 1939 and 1948), he started promoting boxing in Madison Square Garden in New York. The first match during their partnership was a light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.

Around the same time, former professional wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had a revolutionary concept. He decided to take wrestling to a higher level, bringing it out of back alleys and rough areas into sporting arenas. He also made wrestling more exciting, with his "Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling." His next move was to form a promotion with Ed Lewis and Billy Sandow. They persuaded a lot of wrestlers to sign up contracts with the newly named 'Gold Dust Trio'. They also were the group that developed the concept of working. Of course that changed the course of professional wrestling history forever.

Eventually the trio dissolved and the promotion did also, after a disagreement over power. Mondt formed partnerships with several promoters. When Jack Curley was dying, Mondt knew that New York wrestling would fall apart. Realizing this he gained help from several bookers, one of these being Jess McMahon.

Together Jess and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). There is not a lot of information on the early days of the CWC, but it is known that it joined the NWA in 1953.

Mondt had been using Antonio Rocca as a main eventer. He was successful in the role and Mondt was pleased to have him as part of the company. Unfortunately, Mondt was unable to keep Rocca happy.

So in 1953, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's other associates, brought in Vince McMahon Sr. He replaced his father Jess in 1953 (around the time the CWC became a territorial member of the NWA). They controlled all of the northeastern wrestling circuit.

Vince Sr. and Toots Mondt were a great combination. Within a short time, they controlled around 70% of the NWA's booking. Considering what a landmark organization the NWA was, that is a considerable achievement. Mondt taught Vince Sr. about booking and how to work in the wrestling industry. This was the start of the wrestling revolution.

In 1956, the CWC signed a deal with WTTG Channel 5 to air live professional wrestling shows.

[edit]
World Wide Wrestling Federation
The NWA recognized an undisputed NWA World Heavyweight Champion that went from wrestling company to wrestling company in the alliance and defended the belt around the world. In 1963, the champion was "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers.

The rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World Championship, but Rogers was unwilling to sacrifice his $25,000 deposit on the belt (title holders at the time had to pay a deposit to insure they would honor their commitments as champion). Rogers lost the NWA World Championship to Lou Thesz in a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario on January 24, 1963, which led to Mondt, McMahon and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the process.

In mid-April, Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Championship following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro. he lost the title to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963 after supposedly suffering a heart attack shortly before the match.

Toots Mondt left the company in the late sixties for unclear reasons, probably due to old age.

The WWWF rejoined NWA in 1971. This meant that the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was downgraded (was no longer a world title) and was renamed the WWWF Heavyweight Title, though the champs during this NWA Membership the WWWF Champions were recognized World Champions retroactive by WWE today.

In March 1979, the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The change was purely cosmetic, and the ownership and front office personnel remained unchanged during this period.

[edit]
World Wrestling Federation

The World Wrestling Federation logo (1984 - 1995)In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Sports from his father. The elder McMahon had long since established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA by recognizing that pro wrestling was more about entertainment than sport. Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an expansion process that would fundamentally change the sport, and place both the WWF - and his own life - in jeopardy.

Leaving the NWA for a second time in itself was not that big of a step; the American Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an official NWA member, and just over a decade earlier the WWWF itself had rejoined the NWA. But in neither instance did the defecting member attempt to undermine, and destroy, the territory system that had been the foundation of the industry for more than half a century.

Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. He effectively broke the unwritten law of regionalism around which the entire industry had been based. To make matters worse, McMahon would use the income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to poach talent from rival promoters. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF.

According to several reports, Vince Sr. warned his son: "Vinny, what are you doing? You'll wind up at the bottom of a river." In spite of such warnings, the younger McMahon had an even bolder ambition: the WWF would tour nationally. However, such a venture required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse.

The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking sports entertainment concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (in some areas; most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on closed-circuit television) that McMahon marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.

The concept of a wrestling super card was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running StarrCade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed-circuit locations. However, McMahon wanted to take the WWF to the mainstream, targeting the public who were not regular wrestling fans. He drew the interest of the mainstream media by inviting celebrities such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event. MTV, in particular, featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming at this time, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.

[edit]
The Golden Age
The new formula of what McMahon deemed sports entertainment was a resounding financial success at the original WrestleMania in 1985. The WWF did incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his all-American babyface hero, Hulk Hogan, for the next several years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for professional wrestling. However, by the 1990s the WWF's fortunes steadily declined as fans were tired of Hulk Hogan's act and circus-like wrestling gimmicks (such as a clown and animal mascots).

[edit]
The New Generation

The World Wrestling Federation logo (1995 - 1998)The WWF hit a low point in the wake of allegations of steroid abuse and distribution made against McMahon and the WWF in 1994; there were also allegations of sexual harassment made by WWF employees. McMahon was eventually exonerated, but it was a public relations nightmare for the WWF. The steroid trial cost the WWF an estimated $5 million at a time when revenues were at an all-time low. To compensate, McMahon cut the pay of both wrestlers and front office personnel - close to 40% in the latter case. This helped drive many WWF wrestlers to its only major competition, WCW, between 1994 and 1996. During this time period, WWF promoted itself as "The New WWF Generation." Unlike the past, this was led by Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker.

[edit]
The Attitude Era

The World Wrestling Federation logo (1998 - 2002). This is the logo which WWE is prohibited from using after its agreement with the conservation organization WWF.The attitude era began in officially 1997. However, starting with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's speech at the 1996 King of the Ring PPV, the WWF was starting to end its "family era" and began broadcasting more violence, swearing, and more edgy angles in its attempt to compete with WCW. After Bret Hart left for WCW following the infamous Montreal Screwjob incident, Vince McMahon used the resulting backlash in the creation of his Mr. McMahon character, a dictatorial and fierce ruler who favored heel wrestlers who were "good for business" over "misfits" like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. This, in turn, led to the Austin vs. McMahon feud, which, along with the formation of D-Generation X, laid the foundation for the Attitude Era. The Attitude Era also featured the established Monday Night Wars, where both WCW and the WWF had Monday night shows that competed against each other in the ratings.

On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as SmackDown! on the fledgling UPN network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999.

On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing.

In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network NBC, announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional football league. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but was later pulled from the network after the initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels.

[edit]
Acquisition of WCW and ECW
With the success of the Attitude Era, WCW's financial situation deteriorated significantly, and its newly-merged parent company AOL Time Warner decided to cut the division loose. In March 2001, WWF Entertainment, Inc. acquired WCW from AOL Time Warner for $3 million. Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), which was at one point the number three promotion in North America after WWF and WCW, folded around the same time, with its assets being purchased by WWFE in October 2001.

[edit]
World Wrestling Entertainment
A 2000 lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund (also WWF) was settled in 2002, when on May 6, 2002, the company changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., or WWE. This forced the company to issue new licensed merchandise such as apparel, action figures, video games, and DVDs with the new WWE logo. For a short while, WWE had the slogan: "Get the "F" out."

On June 22nd, 2006, it was reported that the WWE was in the process of finalizing the "World Wrestling Federation" trademark. [1] Some fans have eluded to this as a a sign that the WWE would once more be able to use the WWF initials on all products once more without incident. The trademark case is currently on opposition phase.

In April 2002, about a month before the name change, the WWF decided to create two separate rosters, one on RAW, the other on SmackDown!, due to the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE Brand Extension. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly Draft Lottery was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived the old ECW promotion as its third brand. The new ECW airs Tuesday nights at 10 PM on the Sci-Fi Channel.

[edit]
Championships and accomplishments
[edit]
Current champions
Brand Championship Current champion(s) Held since 
RAW WWE Champion Edge July 3, 2006 
WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro June 25, 2006 
WWE Women's Champion Mickie James April 2, 2006 
World Tag Team Champions Spirit Squad ???
(Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey) April 3, 2006 
SmackDown! World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio April 2, 2006 
WWE United States Champion Finlay July 11, 2006
(aired July 14, 2006) 
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms January 29, 2006 
WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick May 21, 2006 
ECW ECW World Heavyweight Champion Big Show July 4, 2006 

??? All five members of the Spirit Squad are recognized as the World Tag Team Champions. Any two members can defend the titles. This type of title defense is known as the Freebird Rule.

[edit]
Accomplishments
Brand Accomplishment Latest Winner(s) Date Won 
SmackDown! King of the Ring King Booker (2006) May 21, 2006 
RAW and
SmackDown! Royal Rumble Rey Mysterio (2006) January 29, 2006 
Money in the Bank Rob Van Dam (2006) April 2, 2006 
Diva Search Ashley Massaro (2005) August 15, 2005 
[edit]
Current developmental champions
Promotion Championship
or accomplishment Current champion(s) Held since 
OVW OVW Heavyweight Champion CM Punk May 3, 2006
(aired May 6, 2006) 
OVW Television Champion Seth Skyfire March 8, 2006
(aired March 11, 2006) 
OVW Southern Tag Team Champions Shad Gaspard and Neighborhoodie May 27, 2006
(aired May 30, 2006) 
DSW Deep South Heavyweight Champion Ryan O'Reilly June 22, 2006 
Deep South Tag Team Champions High Impact
(Mike Taylor and Tony Santarelli) May 18, 2006 
[edit]
Defunct championships and accomplishments
WWE Undisputed Championship (2001-2002) 
WWE Hardcore Championship (1998-2002) 
WWE European Championship (1997-2002) 
WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (1981-2001) 
WWF North American Championship (1979-1981) 
WWWF United States Championship (1970-1976) 
WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1963-1967) 
WWF Women's Tag Team Championship (1983-1989) 
WWF International Heavyweight Championship (1959-1963, 1982-1985) 
WWF International Tag Team Championship (1969-1985) 
WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1967-1985) 
WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1991) 
WWF Million Dollar Championship (1989-1992, 1995-1996) 
WWF New Japan Martial Arts Championship (1978-1985) 
OVW Hardcore Championship (2000-2001) 
OVW Light Heavyweight Championship (1999-2001) 
[edit]
See also
World Wrestling Entertainment alumni 
World Wrestling Entertainment roster 
List of WWE pay-per-view events 
List of video games based on licensed properties 
Ohio Valley Wrestling 
Deep South Wrestling, LLC 
WWE Draft 
WWE Hall of Fame 
WWE programs 
WWE Films 
WWE Diva Search 
WWE Tough Enough 
2006 WWE television ratings 
[edit]
References
^ "WWE to be WWF again?" A report concerning the WWE's attempt to trademark the "World Wrestling Federation" name. 
[edit]
External links
Official WWE website 
Official WWE Corporate website 
WWE Stock 
OVW: Ohio Valley Wrestling - WWE's Developmental Territory based in Louisville, KY 
Deep South Wrestling - WWE's Developmental Territory based in McDonough, GA 



World Wrestling Entertainment History Series 
History 
Monday Night Wars | Montreal Screwjob | The Invasion | WWE Undisputed Championship | WWE Brand Extension | Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE) 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment"
Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | 1952 establishments | World Wrestling Entertainment | Sports entertainment | Entertainment companies of the United States

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
World Championship Wrestling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from WCW)
Jump to: navigation, search
For the Nintendo Entertainment System video game, see WCW Wrestling. For the Australian promotion, see WCW Australia. 
World Championship Wrestling  
Details 
Acronym WCW 
Established 1986 
Style American Wrestling 
Location Atlanta, Georgia 
Founder(s) Ted Turner 
Owner(s) Turner Broadcasting System (TBS)/Turner (1988-96)
Time Warner (1996-2001)
Vince McMahon (2001-present) 
Parent Turner Broadcasting System (TBS)/Turner (1988-96)
Time Warner (1996-2001)
World Wrestling Entertainment (2001) 
Formerly NWA Eastern States Championship Wrestling
NWA Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Georgia Championship Wrestling
Jim Crockett Promotions
NWA World Championship Wrestling
Universal Wrestling Corporation 
Merged with World Wrestling Entertainment 
World Championship Wrestling or WCW, was a professional wrestling promotion that was based in Atlanta and existed from 1986 to 2001. Rights to the promotion and all properties of it currently belong to World Wrestling Entertainment. Originally known as Jim Crockett Promotions, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling, the company was formed when Turner Broadcasting System acquired control of the wrestling related assets of Jim Crockett Promotions, at the time the flagship of the dissipating National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) for $9 million (the Crocketts continued to own a minority stake in the promotion until selling out altogether a few years later). WCW became very popular in the mid-1990s and maintained its popularity until the late 1990s, before spiraling down into severe misfortune. In March 2001, the company's assets, including trademarks, wrestler contracts, and extensive video library were purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), who continued to use the name as part of a storyline until November 2001, when the promotion officially ceased. WCW was also a member of the NWA until September 1993.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
1.1 In the Beginning: The NWA Years 
1.2 The Bischoff Era Begins 
1.3 Monday Night Wars 
1.4 Vince McMahon Strikes Back 
1.5 The Death of WCW 
2 Final champions 
3 WCW Titles 
4 WCW Special Tournaments 
5 Books/DVD 
6 See also 
7 External links 



[edit]
History
[edit]
In the Beginning: The NWA Years
Although World Championship Wrestling was a brand name used by promoter Jim Barnett for his Australian promotion, the first promotion in the United States to use the World Championship Wrestling brand name (though it was never referred to as "WCW") on a widescale was Georgia Championship Wrestling (although Vincent James McMahon's Capitol Wrestling Corpotation did in fact use the name in some house show promotion).

This promotion, owned primarily by Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco and booked by Ole Anderson, was the first NWA territory to gain cable TV access. In 1983, Georgia Championship Wrestling changed the name of its television show (and thus its public face) to World Championship Wrestling since it was already starting to run shows in "neutral" territories such as Ohio and Michigan. Although many in the business felt that Anderson was mismanaging the company, Georgia Championship Wrestling had managed to compete against the other major territory trying to go national (Vince McMahon's WWF).

Main article: Black Saturday (1984)
In May 1984, the Brisco brothers sold their shares in Georgia Championship Wrestling, including their timeslot on the TBS cable TV network to Vince McMahon. The WWF show did not fare well in ratings. World Championship Wrestling's core audience was not interested in the WWF's cartoony approach, preferring a more athletic style. Despite originally promising to produce original programming for the TBS timeslot in Atlanta, McMahon chose instead to provide only a clip show for TBS, featuring highlights from other WWF programming. In May 1985, McMahon sold the TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions, owned by Jim Crockett, Jr., under pressure from Ted Turner, who resurrected the World Championship Wrestling name (Turner Broadcasting had copyrighted it and prevented McMahon from using it).

By 1986, Jim Crockett, Jr. controlled key portions of the NWA under the name Jim Crockett Promotions, including the traditional NWA territories in The Carolinas, Georgia, and St. Louis. Crockett merged his various NWA territories into one group. A feud between Crockett and Vince McMahon's WWF sprang up, and both companies attempted to outmaneuver the other to acquire key TV slots.

In the same year, he also purchased Heart of America Sports Attractions Inc (HASA), which owned the rights to promote wrestling shows through several central states (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa). HASA was known to fans as NWA Central States, and ran a TV show called All Star Wrestling.

In 1987, Crockett would purchase Championship Wrestling from Florida, and Universal Wrestling Federation (which covered Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana), which was not an NWA member. The CWF & Mid-South (and its wrestlers) were absorbed into Jim Crockett Promotions.

Crockett had almost accomplished his goal of creating a national federation. Between his purchasing several NWA territories, World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas leaving the NWA in 1986 (and later merging with Jerry Jarrett's Championship Wrestling Alliance in Memphis to create the United States Wrestling Association) brand, and the once highly viable Portland territory going bankrupt (it closed in 1992), he was the last bastion of the NWA, and the last member with national TV exposure. Since it was all they now saw, many people began to believe that World Championship Wrestling was the NWA. Although Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA were still two separate entities, with Crockett as NWA President, they were very much on the same page. The NWA was effectively an on-paper organization funded by Crockett, and allowed Crockett to use the NWA brand-name.

With the large amount of capital needed to take a wrestling federation on a national tour, Crockett's territorial acquisitions had seriously drained JCP's coffers. He was in a similar situation to that of the WWF in the early 1980s: a large debt load, and the success or failure of a federation hinging on the success or failure of a couple of PPVs. Crockett marketed StarrCade '87 as the NWA's answer to WrestleMania. However, Vince McMahon released Survivor Series on the same day and threatened to withhold WrestleMania IV from any PPV company that refused to show it. Later, in January 1988, Crockett released the Bunkhouse Stampede PPV, and McMahon counter-programmed with the first Royal Rumble on USA. Both Crockett PPVs achieved low buyrates.

In 1985, Crockett had signed Dusty Rhodes and made him booker for JCP. Rhodes had a well-deserved reputation for creativity and authored many of the memorable feuds and storylines of this period and gimmick matches like WarGames. By 1988, after three years of trying to compete with Vince McMahon, and a long, drawn-out political struggle with champion Ric Flair, Rhodes was burned out. He was unable to draw fan interest in his storylines, and the Dusty finish had reduced the house show market. By the end of 1988, Rhodes was booking cards seemingly at random, and planning at one point to have mid-card wrestler Rick Steiner defeat Ric Flair in a five-minute match at StarrCade for the NWA World Championship. At the end of 1988, Rhodes was fired by the promotion after an angle he booked where Road Warrior Animal pulled a spike out of his shoulderpad and jammed it in Rhodes's eye busting it wide open.

To preserve the inexpensive network programming provided by professional wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions was purchased outright by Turner on November 21, 1988. Originally incorporated by TBS as the Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised the fans that WCW would be the athlete-oriented style of NWA.

1989 proved to be a turnaround year for WCW, with Ric Flair on top for most of the year both as World Champion and also as head booker. Flair had helped bring in Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk, and his PPV matches with both were successful, financially and critically. Young stars such as Sid Vicious, Sting, Scott Steiner, The Road Warriors, Brian Pillman, The Great Muta and Lex Luger were given big storylines and championship opportunities.

Despite this influx of talent, WCW soon began working to gradually incorporate much of the glamour and showy gimmicks for which the WWF was better known. Virtually none of these stunts, such as the live cross-promotional appearance of RoboCop at a PPV event in 1990, the Chamber of Horrors gimmick and the notorious Black Scorpion storyline, succeeded. Behind the scenes, WCW was also becoming more autonomous and slowly started separating itself from the historic NWA name. In January 1991, WCW officially split from the NWA and began to recognize its own WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship.

For more details on this topic, see Jim Herd. 
Both the WCW and the NWA recognized Ric Flair (who was by now no longer the head booker) as their World Heavyweight Champion throughout most of the first half of 1991, but WCW, particularly recently-installed company president Jim Herd, turned against Flair for various reasons and fired him just prior to the July 1991 Great American Bash PPV. In the process, they officially stripped him of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. However, according to Flair's autobiography, they refused to return the $25,000 deposit he had put down on the (physical) belt, so he kept it and took it with him when he was hired by the WWF at the request of Vince McMahon. Flair then incorporated the belt into his gimmick, dubbing himself the real World's Champion.

WCW later renegotiated the use of the NWA name as a co-promotional gimmick with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and sued the WWF to stop showing Flair with the old NWA World title belt on its programs, claiming a trademark on the physical design of the belt. The belt was returned to WCW by Flair when Jim Herd was let go and he received his deposit back, and it was brought back as the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

During the period that WCW operated with its own World Champion while also recognizing the NWA's world title, Flair quit the WWF and returned to WCW, regaining the title from Barry Windham in July 1993. Immediately, the other, now smaller, member organizations of the NWA began rightfully demanding that Flair defend the title under their rules in their territories, as mandated by old NWA agreements. The title was later scheduled to be dropped by Flair to "Ravishing" Rick Rude, a title change which was exposed by the Disney Tapings, the months-in-advance taping of WCW's syndicated television shows at Disney-owned studios in Orlando, Florida. The NWA board of directors, working separately from WCW, objected to Rude, forcing WCW to finally leave the NWA for good again in September 1993.

See also: WCW_Disney_tapings#Logistical_Errors 
However, WCW still legally owned and used the actual belt which represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (Rick Rude even defended it as The Big Gold Belt) but they could no longer use the NWA name. The title thus became known as the WCW International World Heavyweight Title (meaning the World heavyweight championship as sanctioned by "WCW International," a fictional organization made up of promoters from around the world, essentially their in-house version of the real NWA).

WCW knew that the title belt, because of its rich in-ring history and visual impact, was highly sought after and respected over in Japan and as such created this fictional subsidiary dubbed WCW International to inject some credibility back into the belt. WCW claimed that "WCWI" still recognized the belt as a legitimate World Championship. For a short while, there were essentially two World titles up for competition in the organization.

Sting eventually won the WCW International Championship and lost the belt to then-WCW World Champion Ric Flair in a unification match in May 1994 when the experiment was jettisoned. To make things more confusing, the WCW title belt, as introduced in 1991, was dropped and the old NWA Championship belt was revived and officially replaced it as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It was used as such until WCW's closure in 2001. The belt (in a slightly altered design) is still seen today in WWE as the World Heavyweight Championship on their SmackDown! brand (previously on RAW), and WWE has claimed on various programs that the World Heavyweight Championship is a continuation of the World Heavyweight Championship lineage from WCW. However, WWE.com officially lists the title history of the World Heavyweight Championship as beginning with Triple H being awarded the belt by Eric Bischoff on RAW on September 2, 2002.

[edit]
The Bischoff Era Begins

WCW logo from 1988-1999.The creative product of the company sank very noticeably in 1992 and 1993 under the presidency of Jim Herd and, subsequently, Bill Watts. There were signs of gradual recovery in late 1993 when former commentator and American Wrestling Association (AWA) booker Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Vice President of WCW. Bischoff, originally brought in as a secondary commentator behind Jim Ross after the AWA became defunct, was desperate to give WCW a new direction and impressed Turner's top brass with his confrontational tactics and business-savvy.

Bischoff's first year was considered unsuccessful. Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson were in full creative control at this point, with what were considered to be cartoonish storylines, as well as seemingly pointless feuds with little or no buildup. During a live Clash of the Champions to build up the Fall Brawl PPV, WCW decided to introduce a "mystery partner" for the babyfaces, a masked man known as The Shockmaster. The Shockmaster (previously known as Typhoon in the WWF) was supposed to crash through a fake wall and intimidate the heels. Instead, he tripped through the wall and fell on live television.

For more details on this topic, see Fred_Ottman#The_Shockmaster_incident. 
WCW in 1993 decided to base the promotion around Ric Flair. This was seen as more or less a necessity, as prospective top babyface Sid Vicious tried to injure wrestler Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors four weeks before StarrCade while on tour in England. Flair won the title at StarrCade and was once again made booker.

Bischoff would declare open war on McMahon's WWF in the media and aggressively recruited high-profile former WWF superstars such as Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 1994. Using Turner's monetary resources, Bischoff placed his faith in the established stars with proven track records. Because of their high profiles, Hogan and Savage were able to demand and get several concessions not usually allowed to wrestlers at the time, such as multi-year, multimillion dollar guaranteed contracts and significant creative control. This would later seem a problem during subsequent years of competition with the WWF, as other wrestlers were able to make similar demands, and contract values soared out of control. Hogan, in particular, was able to gain considerable influence through a friendship with Bischoff. Another thing Bischoff may have failed to consider was the fact that many WCW fans watched it as an alternative to the product of the WWF in the early 90s, and many NWA fans saw the hiring of former WWF talent as an attempt to copy its success, as opposed to being an alternative product with an emphasis on in-ring action.

WCW's first major event since Hogan's hiring, Bash at the Beach, saw the former WWF mainstay defeat Ric Flair for the WCW Championship. The two had worked for the WWF at the same time from 1991 to 1992, and a feud was teased between them, but the big-money match originally planned for WrestleMania VIII was changed to Flair/Savage and Hogan/Sid. When WCW delivered the match, the PPV drew a high buy rate by WCW standards due to mainstream intrigue and hype.

This was not lost on Turner management, however, and Bischoff's bold, expensive steps didn't quite meet their expectations when they came to check up on things in mid-1995. Thus, Bischoff called Turner and requested a private meeting, which he was granted.

[edit]
Monday Night Wars
Main article: Monday Night Wars
Bischoff would be instrumental in launching the weekly show WCW Monday Nitro in September 1995. Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could conceivably compete with McMahon's WWF. Bischoff, not expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a primetime slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show, Monday Night RAW. Turner granted him a live hour on TNT every Monday night, which specifically overlapped with Raw. This format quickly expanded to two live hours in May 1996, and then later three. Bischoff himself was initially the host, alongside Bobby Heenan and ex-NFL star Steve "Mongo" McMichael.

McMahon later admitted to being bitter about Turner's decision to air Nitro live on Monday nights, saying that Turner and Bischoff's only reason for doing this could be to hurt and damage the WWF. Turner and McMahon certainly had something of a personal history: in the early 1980s, when McMahon began buying up local organizations in order to create a nationwide wrestling system, one of the promotions he took over was Georgia Championship Wrestling; thus he was in the position of providing a Saturday night show for Turner's TBS station. When viewers tuned to TBS on July 14, 1984 (a date known as Black Saturday in the wrestling community) and saw WWF programming instead of the GCW wrestlers they were used to seeing, many called the station and demanded the NWA's return; two weeks later, GCW returned, albeit on Saturday mornings. Turner quickly grew tired of the personality-driven glitz of McMahon's product and was upset at the fact that McMahon had gone back on his earlier promise not to dump second-rate stars and matches onto TBS. Turner therefore axed McMahon's show and turned to Jim Crockett for the Saturday night pro wrestling slot. It is rumored that on the very same day that Turner later acquired Crockett's territories, he called McMahon to say "Vince, I'm in the rasslin' business!" Vince claims he congratulated him and then told him "That's great Ted, but I'm in the entertainment business."

In 1995, Turner (as sole head and owner of both TBS and TNT), could air Nitro whenever he wanted. The WWF on the other hand was constrained by having to deal with the USA Network, whose executives were pleased about the viewers RAW brought to their network, but were also weary of the stigma associated with being the wrestling channel. WCW Monday Nitro made its debut in September 1995 live from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and featured the surprise appearance of then-WWF wrestler Lex Luger, who had been working on a handshake deal with WWF after his most recent contract expired, on a week when RAW was pre-empted by the US Open.

In the first head-to-head ratings the following week, Nitro managed to convincingly defeat RAW, seeing WCW beat the WWF for the first time ever. For most of Nitro's first year, the ratings battle between the two promotions were close. In the end, Nitro ended up beating RAW in the ratings for 84 straight weeks between 1996 and 1998.

RAW and the WWF in general was consided to be at a creative nadir from 1995 to 1997, thus helping WCW's meteoric rise. The WWF tried in vain to fight back in early 1996 with the Billionaire Ted sketches, which occasionally starred an unbilled Vince Russo and viciously parodied Turner, Hogan (The Huckster), Gene Okerlund (Scheme Gene) and Savage ("Nacho Man") in particular. Only when stars such as ex-WCW wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin began to emerge, and when McMahon selected Russo, a New York DJ and WWF magazine writer, as his head booker, did the WWF begin to pick up steam.

Siphoning off the WWF's talent and airing Nitro on Monday night was not the end of WCW's tactics to defeat the competition (a stunt McMahon himself pulled when he steamrolled over territories to monopolize the WWF, although McMahon would be the one crying "foul" this time). In the early days, as RAW was only live once every three weeks at that point, and as hours of upcoming shows would be taped in one arena on one night, announcers on Nitro could (and would) often give away the results of that week's RAW to keep viewers tuned to Nitro. Much later, with the WWF firmly back on top, this tactic memorably backfired on January 4, 1999, when WCW announcer Tony Schiavone was instructed by Bischoff over his headset to announce that Mick Foley (wrestling as Mankind in the WWF), would win the WWF Championship that night on the USA Network. Schiavone then sarcastically remarked, "that would put a lot of butts in the seats." Nielsen ratings for that night showed that almost immediately after Schiavone's comment, around 300,000 to 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro to RAW in a matter of seconds. This startling ratings switch was seen as a true testament to Foley's dedication to wrestling and the WWF's ever-growing popularity.

[edit]
Vince McMahon Strikes Back
See also: Monday_Night_Wars#1999-2000:_The_Tide_Turns 
After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new WWF Attitude brand, led in particular by rising stars "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and Mankind. The classic feud between McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded as the evil company chairman character Mr. McMahon) and Austin (who, ironically, had been released by Bischoff in the summer of 1995 for not being marketable) caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of RAW, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996. WWF didn't stop there. Their ratings increased dramatically in the next two years, more then ever before. WCW attempted to counter this by dividing the nWo into the Hogan-led heel nWo Hollywood faction and the Nash-led face nWo Wolfpac faction, but many felt that it was a poor rehash of the original WCW vs. nWo storyline. Undeterred, WCW also launched a new Thursday TV show, the aforementioned WCW Thunder, around this time.

WCW's next big attempt at ratings supremacy was marketing ex-NFL newcomer Bill Goldberg as an invincible monster with a record-breaking winning streak. Goldberg was indeed incredibly popular from the outset, with chants of 'Gold-berg, Gold-berg' heralding his approach to the ring, but business still quickly fell off for WCW, especially as the list of stars ready to be destroyed by Goldberg grew shorter. One of WCW's last big genuine wins in the Monday night ratings war was on July 6, 1998, when WCW gave the long-awaited World Title match in Atlanta between Hogan and Goldberg (which Goldberg won), away for free on Nitro. By doing this, they indeed 'spiked' and inflated their TV ratings for a week, but flushed away millions of possible PPV dollars in the process, as Hogan vs. Goldberg was a clear PPV main event. On September 14, 1998, WCW won the ratings war once again with a memorable moment that featured Ric Flair's return to WCW and the reformation of the legendary Four Horsemen. On October 25, 1998, WCW's Halloween Havoc PPV ended up running longer than the time allowed due to the last-minute addition of a Tag Team Title match. As a result, several thousand people lost the PPV feed at 11pm which was during the World Title match between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. The following night, WCW decided to correct the problem by airing the entire match for free on Nitro and thus winning the ratings war for the final time.

WCW slowly slid into a period of extravagant overspending and what was viewed almost universally as creative decline; why this happened and who let it happen is a matter of debate among wrestling fans and historians. Some attribute the slump to the overuse of celebrities (such as Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno just to name two) to wrestle PPV matches. Some feel that the WCW's credibility was badly damaged by embarrassing product placement, like Rick Steiner trading barbs with Chucky the killer doll (which was roundly booed by the in-house audience on the live Nitro broadcast) in the hopes of generating interest in the 1998 film Bride of Chucky. Others blame the stale, pointless, and at times self-serving storylines concocted by inexperienced bookers such as Kevin Nash, while still others claim that the top-level stars had no motivation to excel in the ring due to their long-term guaranteed-money contracts, and only gave their utmost when it suited them to do so. What is known is that WCW programming slowly started to go downhill in quality with people turning off their TVs or switching to WWF programming, and in reaction the company began to panic and tried to solve its problems by throwing money at them (a practice it could ill-afford to engage in).

As mentioned above, people were growing suspicious of Nash's questionable storylines, which were dominated by his on-screen persona. After booking himself to win World War 3 in November 1998, he went on to end Goldberg's winning streak and win the World Title on the StarrCade PPV just one month later. Then came the infamous 'fingerpoke of doom' match with Hulk Hogan in January 1999. The World Heavyweight Championship changed hands when Hogan knocked Nash to the mat by prodding him in the chest with one finger and then pinning him, further damaging the credibility and perceived value of the title. It was the same episode of Nitro that Tony Schiavone mockingly announced the Mick Foley WWF Title win.

For more details on this topic, see Fingerpoke_of_Doom#The_Impact. 
Also in 1998, The Ultimate Warrior, a former WWF star, was recruited by Eric Bischoff to feud with Hogan (Warrior's WrestleMania VI opponent). Their October 1998 encounter at Halloween Havoc was mostly seen as sub-par, and Warrior vanished soon after. The Ultimate Warrior also insisted on a number of elaborate and costly apparatuses such as a trapdoor in the ring, which badly injured The British Bulldog when he landed on it.

For more details on this topic, see Warrior_(wrestler)#World_Championship_Wrestling. 
In addition, no matter who was in charge, WCW did not like promoting its younger stars to the company's top slots. Despite having many talented younger wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., the late Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Raven, Rey Mysterio, Jr., and Booker T (just to name a few) on its roster, they were kept away from the main event scene. What was seen as WCW's poor talent decisions combined with the massive popularity of the new, hip and edgy WWF Attitude Era, likely began WCW's rapid demise.

Bischoff was eventually removed from power by the Turner higher-ups on September 10, 1999, the last straws perhaps being what was felt as a bizarre and mystifying push for the 1970s rock group KISS through WCW shows, a storyline involving rapper Master P and The No Limit Soldiers that saw Master P last only two weeks (the No Limit Soldiers flopped so badly that the West Texas Rednecks heel stable that they were feuding with was cheered by the Southern WCW fans); an announced million-dollar contest that was later cancelled; a planned Nitro animated series that was scrapped, as well; and Bischoff's long-standing desire to put on a huge, outdoor rock 'n' wrestling concert featuring KISS on December 31, 1999.

See also: Eric_Bischoff#Downfall 
[edit]
The Death of WCW
See also: Vince_Russo#WCW 
Bischoff was unexpectedly replaced by former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrera. Russo and Ferrera had been the head writers for the WWF at the beginning of the Attitude Era, subordinate only to Vince McMahon himself. WCW offered them lucrative contracts to jump ship in October 1999 in an effort to revitalize their own flagging product and weaken the product of the WWF. Russo and Ferrera tried to push the younger WCW talents straight away, and phase out aging stars such as Hogan and Flair. However, Russo was thought by many to be incapable of recreating the intriguing and cutting-edge TV he had produced while working for McMahon.

Russo and Ferrera struggled to gain approval for their near-the-knuckle ideas from the WCW management, such as 'Piñata on a Pole' matches between Mexican wrestlers. In late 1999, Russo and Ferrera revived the nWo storyline, this time with Jeff Jarrett and Bret Hart at the helm. They next targeted WWF announcer Jim Ross with a parody character called 'Oklahoma', who was played onscreen by Ferrera (Ross had been suffering from Bell's palsy, and the character lampooned his resultant facial defects). Bad luck struck in December 1999 when Hart suffered a genuine (and ultimately career-ending) concussion at the hands of Goldberg, who severely damaged his own hand less than a week later while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland as part of a storyline that was written by Russo. Russo himself became an onscreen character during this period, though one whose face was never shown on camera, in a manner not dissimilar to Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget and the George Steinbrenner character from Seinfeld. Only his hand and the back of his chair were ever actually seen, as he called wrestlers into his office to receive their marching orders for the night.

See also: Bret_Hart#World_Championship_Wrestling 
Both Russo and Ferrera were suspended just three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW Champion (Abbott, despite his legitimate fighting background, had little wrestling experience and had failed to connect with WCW audiences). Kevin Sullivan, who had been an on/off booker over the course of several years, was placed in charge in the interim. The new writing team attempted to appease the demoralized wrestlers and fans by making Chris Benoit the WCW Champion at the Souled Out PPV in January 2000. However, because of the real-life personal issues between himself and Sullivan, let alone that prior to the PPV he and a few other wrestlers demanded their releases from the company (due to their lack of being pushed to stardom as well as their similar hatred for Sullivan), Benoit handed the belt back right after winning it and the next day left WCW. He signed with the WWF along with his similarly frustrated friends Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko. The four quickly became popular in the WWF as "The Radicalz."

On February 11, 2000, black wrestlers Bobby Walker and Harrison Norris and Japanese manager Sonny Onoo launched racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW, claiming that they had not been pushed as a result of their ethnicities, had not been paid as well as other wrestlers and personalities, and had been given offensive gimmicks. Some speculated that the charges of racism brought against WCW (and the resultant bad publicity for the company, which had been dogged by accusations of racism for years), were partially responsible for black wrestler Booker T winning the WCW Championship later that year and his brother Stevie Ray being made a color commentator, with Ray himself acknowledging that it might have been a factor.

In April 2000, with ratings hitting new lows, both Russo and Bischoff were reinstated by WCW. They formed an on-screen union that stood up for the younger talent in the company (which they dubbed the New Blood) in their battle against the Millionaire's Club, which consisted of the older, higher-paid, and more visible stars such as Hogan, Sting, and Diamond Dallas Page. Though initially well-received, the storyline quickly degenerated into yet another nWo rehash, with the heel nWo recast as the New Blood and the face WCW embodied in the Millionaire's Club. As well, the unorthodox and often controversial storylines continued. These included making actor David Arquette the WCW Champion in order to promote a WCW-themed movie, Ready to Rumble; Russo himself winning the WCW Championship in September 2000 (Russo, like Arquette, was not a trained wrestler); a botched (and, in the eyes of many, completely unnecessary) June heel turn for Goldberg that greatly diminished his drawing power; and a shoot speech by Russo at Bash at the Beach 2000 aimed at Hulk Hogan which led to Hogan resigning and filing a defamation of character lawsuit against the company (which was eventually dismissed in 2002). Bischoff vanished once more in July 2000, and Russo was gone from WCW completely by late 2000, leaving Terry Taylor holding the reins.

For more details on this topic, see Hulk_Hogan#The_end_of_Hogan_in_WCW. 
Meanwhile, when Time Warner bought out Turner's cable empire in 1996, it also purchased WCW. Even though Turner was a big fan and faithful to the professional wrestling shows on his stations (a professional wrestling program had helped get Turner's very first TV station, WTBS, off the ground, and WCW was, in fact, the modern incarnation of the promotion that Turner had run on WTBS back in those days) regardless of whether it was losing him money, Time Warner did not share his loyalty, especially when accounts showed that WCW was losing between $12-$17 million a year because of its decline. However, Turner was still the single largest Time Warner shareholder, and WCW was supported at his behest. When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000, Turner was effectively forced out of his own empire. The new AOL Time Warner finally had the power to auction off WCW, which they saw as an unnecessary drain on resources.

In late 2000, Bischoff and a group of private investors, calling themselves Fusient Media Ventures, inquired about buying WCW but backed out when Turner networks head (and The WB founder) Jamie Kellner formally cancelled all WCW programming from its TV networks. With no network to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer was dependent on the Turner networks continuing to air WCW programming.

On March 23, 2001, virtually all of WCW's trademarks and archived footage, was sold to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. for a paltry $7 million (although the book The Death of WCW said it was less than $3 million). It should be pointed out that McMahon did not purchase the actual company known as World Championship Wrestling, Inc.

A gloating McMahon opened the last-ever episode of WCW Monday Nitro simulcast with RAW on March 26, 2001 with a self-praising speech. Sting vs. Ric Flair (won by Sting) was the nostalgic final match of the final broadcast, ending affectionately with a respectful embrace.


The WCW logo used in the WWF during the 2001 Invasion storyline.When Vince came on RAW after the Sting/Flair match to declare victory over WCW, Vince's son Shane McMahon appeared at the Nitro event, declaring that he had bought WCW. However, this was kayfabe and part of a WWF storyline that would have Shane leading the WCW Invasion of the WWF (a highly anticipated storyline which many considered a squandered opportunity), which lasted from March to November 2001 and marked the end of WCW. Despite aborted attempts to run WCW-branded events, the WWF only ran a handful of matches on RAW and SmackDown! under the WCW banner.

When the WWF bought WCW in March 2001, several top WCW wrestlers, including Bill Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sting had high-priced contracts with AOL Time Warner that WWF was unwilling to pick up. Rather than trying to get a buyout of their contracts and taking a pay cut to go to WWF, they chose to sit home and got paid for the remainders of their WCW contracts. This is most often cited as being the main reason the planned WCW Invasion of WWF storyline failed. The WCW was not seen as a powerhouse organization invading WWF when most of their top stars did not appear.

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (which was renamed the World Championship) would continue to be used in WWF until it was merged with the WWF Championship into the WWF Undisputed Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin for the respective titles on December 9, 2001 on the PPV, Vengeance.

Although new professional wrestling alternatives such as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor have seen rising popularity in recent years, none have achieved the mainstream popularity or financial support that WCW enjoyed and thus are not yet considered competitive with WWE.

[edit]
Final champions
This is a list of the champions as they were at the end of the last WCW Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001 (though all these titles, with the exception of the Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, continued to be active in WWF until November of that year).

Championship Final champion(s) 
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T 
WCW United States Champion Booker T 
WCW World Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire 
WCW Cruiserweight Champion "Sugar" Shane Helms 
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio 

Here's a list of the final WCW Champions under the WWF banner.

Championship Final champion(s) 
WCW World Heavyweight Champion1 The Rock 
WCW United States Champion2 Edge 
WCW World Tag Team Champions3 The Dudley Boyz 
WCW Cruiserweight Champion4 Tajiri 

Footnotes

1Renamed the World Championship after Survivor Series 2001; unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance 2001. The belt design was later reintroduced as the WWE sanctioned World Heavyweight Championship as a RAW exclusive title in September 2002 (now exclusive to SmackDown!). 
2Unified with the WCW United States Championship at Survivor Series 2001; reactivated as a WWE sanctioned title on SmackDown! in 2003 by then-General Manager Stephanie McMahon. 
3Unified with the WCW Tag Team Championship at Survivor Series 2001. 
4Title adopted by the WWF after Survivor Series 2001; renamed the WWF / WWE Cruiserweight Championship. 
[edit]
WCW Titles
WCW World Heavyweight Championship 
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship 
WCW World Tag Team Championship 
WCW World Television Championship 
WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship 
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship 
WCW United States Tag Team Championship 
WCW Cruiserweight Championship 
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship 
WCW Light Heavyweight Championship 
WCW Hardcore Championship 
WCW Women's Championship 
WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship 
WCW Grand Slam 
The Vault's Entire & Accurate WCW Title History 
[edit]
WCW Special Tournaments
WCW Jesse "The Body" Ventura Strongest Arm Tournament (1992-1993) 
WCW King of Cable Tournament (1992) 
WCW/NWA Gauntlet Series (1990) 
WCW Battle Bowl 
WCW Lethal Lottery 
[edit]
Books/DVD
The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-661-4. 
The Monday Night War: WWE Raw vs. WCW Monday Nitro World Wrestling Entertainment, 2004, ASIN B0001CCXCA. 
[edit]
See also
World Championship Wrestling alumni 
List of professional wrestlers 
List of professional wrestling stables 
List of WCW pay-per-view events 
List of WCW television programming 
The Alliance 
Monday Night Wars 
Nitro Girls 
WCW Monday Nitro 
WCW Thunder 
WCW Power Plant 
[[Jim Crockett Promotions]} 
[edit]
External links
Official World Wrestling Entertainment website 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling"
Categories: 1988 establishments | 2001 disestablishments | Defunct companies of the United States | Sports in Atlanta | Time Warner subsidiaries | World Championship Wrestling

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
Mario
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Mario 

For over 25 years, Mario has been Nintendo's official mascot. 
Game series Mario series 
First game Donkey Kong 
Creator(s) Shigeru Miyamoto 
Voice actor(s) Charles Martinet 
For other uses of this name, see Mario (disambiguation).
Mario (マリオ, Mario?) is a video game character created by Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. As well as being Nintendo's mascot, he is one of the most recognizable characters in video game history, appearing in over a hundred games, many of them best-sellers. Outside of the platformers with which he is traditionally associated, Mario has appeared in video games in many different genres, including the Mario Kart series, many of Nintendo's arcade sports games (such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series), and Nintendo's series of Mario role playing games (RPGs) (including Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and its sequel, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time).

Mario is a plumber motivated by a sense of justice, though at times he has been depicted as a doctor and numerous other professions. His distinctive appearance was defined somewhat by the limitations of early video game hardware. Though he began with the ability to jump high, in subsequent games, he received additional powers such as pyrokinesis and flight, and additional playable versions, including Baby Mario, Tanooki suit Mario, and Metal Mario, through the use of power-ups. In adventure games, Mario has used varying techniques for defeating enemies and solving puzzles in his games, both by using his own abilities and the properties of items or abilities of allies he encountered.

The character has also appeared in mass media, and has spawned a line of licensed merchandise. He has also had a number of cameo appearances in other video games, and his likeness has been licensed to software publishers for educational titles. Fans have also created a number of unauthorized works depicting Mario.

Contents [hide]
1 Game history 
2 Character 
2.1 Biography 
2.2 Personality 
2.3 Occupation and hobbies 
2.4 Baby Mario 
2.5 Development 
2.6 Romances 
2.7 Abilities and techniques 
2.8 Metal Mario 
3 Mainstream success 
3.1 Special cameo appearances 
4 Cultural references 
5 Trivia 
6 Appearances on non-Nintendo platforms 
7 See also 
8 Notes and references 
9 External links 



[edit]
Game history
Main article: List of Mario games

Mario made his 3D debut in Super Mario 64To date, nearly 275 million copies of games featuring Mario have been sold,[1] making it by far the best-selling video game franchise of all time.

Mario's first role was as the hero in 1981's Donkey Kong. The game was so successful that he carried over into an arcade spin-off, Mario Bros., which boasted a simultaneous two-player mode and introduced his brother Luigi. In Donkey Kong Junior, he was the villain, and in the ending cinematic, he is knocked out (although obviously he is not dead because he is in future games). His next appearance would be in the very first game for Nintendo's wildly successful Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the console credited with reviving the home video game market. Super Mario Bros. sold over 40 million copies (pack-in copies included) making it the best-selling video game of all time and has been ported to numerous Nintendo consoles since.

Overall, Mario games have sold approximately 275 million copies worldwide, with Super Mario Bros. 3 holding the record for most copies of a non pack-in video game sold, with over 18 million copies sold. Mario and his friends also appeared in some of the later Game & Watch games.

Mario has explored just about every genre of video game. Aside from action platformers, the plucky plumber has also starred in puzzle games, racing games, sports games, fighting games, role-playing games, educational games, etc.

Future Mario titles include Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis on the Nintendo DS, and Super Paper Mario on the Nintendo GameCube. In addition, Mario will be included once again as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and will star in the new Mario platformer Super Mario Galaxy both on the Nintendo Wii. His newest game is New Super Mario Bros. featuring exclusive items such as the Mega Mushroom and the Mini Mushroom, either making him grow to huge proportions or shrink to a minuscule size, as well as a Blue Koopa Shell, giving him semi-invulnerability if he crouches and the same shell-sliding as a Koopa while dashing.

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Character
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Biography
Mario is in many ways an undeveloped character, with numerous details of his accepted biography having been created through a complex lore spawned from the imaginations of comic book artists and cartoon writers. During the process of designing the character, Miyamoto initially defined the character as simply "a middle aged man with a strong sense of justice who is not handsome". [2] Officially, Nintendo producers have stated that Mario's biography is kept simple in order to make the character versatile, and reusable in many different games and situations.


Mario in Super Mario Bros.In his first appearance in Donkey Kong, all that was stated was that he was a carpenter whose duty it was to save Pauline from Donkey Kong. Furthermore, before the game was widely released in America, the hero was simply labeled Jumpman, having not yet acquired his Italian moniker. He was dubbed "Mario" in homage to his physical similarities with Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo's warehouse at the time in Redmond, Washington [3]. His second appearance in Donkey Kong Jr. solidified the character's name. It was in his third appearance in Mario Bros. where he changed his profession to plumber, which was more fitting with the long-running pipe theme established in that game. Here, Mario and his brother Luigi fought monsters in the sewers of Brooklyn.

Because of this, and the American made cartoon series and the movie, it led many to believe that Brooklyn was Mario and Luigi's original home. However, the games (starting with Yoshi's Island) indicate that Mario and Luigi were delivered to the Mushroom Kingdom. The game, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, also shows that Mario and Luigi were living in the Mushroom Kingdom while they were still babies.

Over the course of his many games, Mario has rescued a number of women from captivity (including Pauline, Princess Peach, and Princess Daisy) and has become regarded as the great hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. His main nemesis is the king of the Koopas, Bowser, who constantly attempts to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnapping Princess Peach but is thwarted by Mario at every turn. Bowser isn't Mario's only foe, however. He has rescued Princess Peach and saved the Mushroom Kingdom from a number of different villains such as Wart in Super Mario Brothers 2, Cackletta in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, the Shroobs in Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, and the X-Nauts in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

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Personality
Mario is always portrayed as being a kind-hearted and brave hero. He helps those in need without any hesitation. Despite his status as a great hero, Mario is very humble. His cheerful personality and love of life make him a very approachable video game character. He also has a love of pasta and pizza, as the stereotypical Italian does. This was first started in the cartoons, but soon afterward, Nintendo supported the idea by having Mario dream of pasta. On his trip to Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine, he daydreams about the food. Also, in Super Mario 64, if the player does not press any buttons for long enough Mario will take a nap and mutter the names of various pastas in his sleep. Not much else is known about Mario's personality, as much of it remains hidden due to the fact that the character never openly converses in the games.

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Occupation and hobbies

Mario in the Paper Mario games, using his trademark weapon, a hammer.Despite Mario's given occupation as a plumber, he is almost never seen doing any plumbing during the games. The closest Mario came to actually doing any plumbing was clearing pipe levels of enemies in Mario Bros. and fixing some pipes in the Mario and Luigi games. Pipes have, however, remained a mode of transportation in almost all Mario games. Mario was most often seen plumbing during the animated series, where he often carried around a plumber's wrench which turned out to be handy in many episodes as a weapon and tool.

Beginning with the Dr. Mario series of puzzle games which first debuted in 1990, Mario has been occasionally depicted as medical physician as well. As a doctor, Mario fights various germs by throwing pills into an infected jar that would match the color of the specific germ. When a certain number of color matching pills hit the germ, it is destroyed. In 2001, Mario appeared in doctor form as a secret character in the Nintendo GameCube hit, Super Smash Bros. Melee. Mario's most recent appearance as a doctor was in 2005 on the Game Boy Advance.

Mario's only full-time job in the games seems to be saving Princess Peach, the Mushroom Kingdom, and surrounding kingdoms from evil tyrants such as Bowser. As seen through character interactions in his role-playing games, Mario has achieved a level of fame amongst the kingdoms' populations due to his heroics.

However, according to the official Nintendo website, Mario earns most of his money through the profits from his Mario Toy Company, which produces Mini Donkey Kong, Mini Mario, Mini Toad and Mini Peach figures. [4]


Mini Mario, one of the figures produced by Mario's Mario Toy Company.Apparently, Mario works so hard at this job that he must often take a vacation ??? Super Mario World and Super Mario Sunshine detail such events. He is also quite the party animal; the Mario Party game series has already numbered seven titles, plus Mario Party Advance, Mario Party-e and the up and coming Mario Party game for the Nintendo Wii.

Mario and his friends are highly skilled in a variety of sports. The Mario franchise has spun off into games involving go-karting, soccer, baseball, tennis, golfing, basketball and dancing. In most of these games where different characters may have varying levels of skill, Mario is typically the most balanced character in classes such as weight, speed, power, or other abilities.

Mario has also demonstrated himself as being a great and powerful fighter in the very popular Nintendo all-star fighting series, Super Smash Bros.. He is the most balanced fighter, and his weight is the standard which all the other playable characters are based on.

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Baby Mario
Baby Mario is the infant version of Mario. Although he has paradoxically appeared alongside his older self in Nintendo sports titles such as Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, it is generally accepted that these games are outside the continuity of the main Mario series, and therefore do not suggest that Mario and Baby Mario are separate characters in the main storyline. An alternative solution is that the babies were present via time travel, as was the case in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Like the older Mario, he is voiced by Charles Martinet.

Baby Mario first appeared in the Super NES game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where the Yoshis saved his brother Luigi from Kamek the Magikoopa. In Yoshi's Island, Baby Mario has a rather passive role, essentially being carried around by different Yoshis for most of the game. However, in some levels, a power-up resembling a star allows him to transform into Super Baby Mario, giving him very high speed, relative invincibility, and the ability to float for short distances. Other than this, Baby Mario is remembered for his boisterous and annoying sobs whenever Yoshi ran into an enemy. When Yoshi took a hit, Baby Mario would float within a bubble while bawling loudly, and the player controlling Yoshi would have between 1-30 seconds to recover Baby Mario and hitch him safely on Yoshi's back. If the time ran out, Mario would be kidnapped by Kamek's Toadies and Yoshi would lose a life.


Baby Mario, as depicted in Yoshi Touch & Go.More recently, Baby Mario appeared in Yoshi Touch & Go and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS. In Yoshi Touch & Go he reclaims the role he held in Yoshi's Island; Baby Mario falls from the sky, this time held up by balloons, as the player guides him by drawing clouds down to the ground where Yoshi waits to catch him. He then rides on Yoshi's back for the rest of that level of the game. In some game modes, Baby Mario can again find the power-up that turns him into Super Baby Mario, making him temporarily invincible. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, he appears alongside his adult counterpart, along with both respective versions of Luigi. The pair of brothers team up in order to save Princess Peach (the grown-up version) from a group of alien invaders known as the Shroobs.

The Japan only game Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is sometimes referred to as "Mario Baby" due to that name being applied to a ROM hack of the game.

According to the information revealed about Yoshi's Island 2 at E3 2006, Baby Mario was preschooled on Yoshi's Island. When a mysterious island appeared and kidnapped most of his schoolmates, he teams up with Yoshi, Baby Peach, and even Baby Donkey Kong to save them. Baby Mario made an unexpected cameo alongside Baby Luigi in the first picture of the opening and ending intro of Mario Power Tennis.

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Development
Mario first appeared in the video game Donkey Kong. The game was surprisingly successful, and when the Nintendo Entertainment System was released, Mario was given the starring role in the revolutionary Super Mario Bros. game.

Mario's distinctive look is due to technology restrictions in the mid-'80s; with a limited number of pixels and colors, the programmers could not animate Mario's movement without making his arms "disappear" if his shirt was a solid color; they did not have the space to give him a mouth or ears; and they could not animate hair, so Mario got overalls, a mustache, sideburns, and a cap to bypass these problems. Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto has also stated when interviewed that Mario wears a cap because he finds it difficult to draw hair.

When Mario was first conceived, he looked, more or less, as he does today; a short, stubby man with the trademark hat, brown hair, black mustache, and overalls. He normally wears blue overalls on top of a red shirt, but such was not always the case. Originally, he wore red overalls on top of a blue shirt ??? exactly opposite what he wears now. The American Super Mario Bros. 2 was the first appearance of his modern outfit (the box had the red overalls-on-blue shirt, but the game itself had a blue overalls-on-red shirt); however, it was Super Mario Bros. 3 that standardized today's blue overalls-on-red shirt outfit. Incidentally, the original Super Mario Bros. has neither in-game; Mario wears a brown shirt with red overalls. In the animated series, Mario was always depicted as having red overalls and a blue shirt.

Mario's outfit rarely changes, though he's known to change it on occasion if the situation calls for it. For example, in Super Mario Strikers (Mario Smash Football in Europe), Mario wears an Association Football (soccer) outfit as opposed to overalls. Also, in some Mario games, Mario can transform into different forms, each with a different costume, such as Tanooki Mario, which allows him to fly and turn into a statue to hide from enemies, Fire Mario where, after collecting the Fire Flower, he will wear white overalls, and can throw fireballs. He can put on the frog suit to become Frog Mario, where his jumping and swimming sbilities are greatly enhanced. And collecting a Hammer turns him into Hammer Mario, an almost exact clone of the Hammer Bros, and in New Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo DS, Shell Mario, where he can skid across the level as if he kicked a Koopa Shell. He also flashes different colors when utilizing a star, which gives him temporary invincibility. Also many items could enhance him or his abilities, such as the "leaf" in Super Mario Bros. 3 which turned him into Raccoon Mario, allowing him to fly. He could also fly in Super Mario World by obtaining a feather which would give him a cape. A Power Wing in Super Mario Bros. 3 gave him a Racoon Tail and unlimited full charge, allowing him to take off at any given time (though this ability is lost after one level.)


A Super Mushroom, inspired by the Lewis Carroll story, Alice in WonderlandMiyamoto created many of the elements in the Mario world from ideas he had seen in other media. One of his most recognizable contributions to his Mario universe is the Super Mushroom, which enlarges Mario until he is damaged by an enemy. There is also a Poison Mushroom, which is darker than the Super Mushroom in the original Super Mario Brothers 2 (although colored purple in the Super Mario All-Stars version of the game), and shaded differently in Super Smash Brothers. When Mario takes it, he is either returned to small Mario, killed (Lost Levels), or becomes smaller and lighter for a short period of time (Super Smash Bros. Melee). These ideas were derived from the "Eat me" cakes and "Drink me" potions in the Lewis Carroll story, Alice in Wonderland, after Miyamoto was forced to shrink the original sketches of Mario because they were too big.[5] The concept behind warp pipes, colored tubes which sometimes transport Mario to another area, was inspired by Star Trek.

The surname "Mario" (which would make his full name Mario Mario) was first used in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and then in the 1993 feature film Super Mario Bros. This was meant to explain how both Mario and his brother Luigi could be known as the "Mario brothers". This surname theory has never been employed in any official Nintendo games or media, however, and it is broadly accepted that Mario and Luigi are collectively called the Mario Bros. simply because Mario is the headliner of the pair.

Mario has taken on the role of mascot of Nintendo and has since been extensively merchandised. Mario's major rival was Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog who debuted in the early 1990s; the two mascots competed head-to-head for nearly a decade afterward, until around 2001 when a Sonic game showed up on a Nintendo console due to Sega's new third party status, ending a lengthy rivalry. Fans have wanted the two characters to appear in a game together for so long, the concept has become something of a cliché within the gaming community.

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Romances
Mario usually has the role of saving the damsel in distress. Originally, he had to rescue his girlfriend Pauline in Donkey Kong from the clutches of the giant ape himself. Pauline didn't last long as a character and was soon replaced by new damsel in distress Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros., (she was initially referred to as Princess Toadstool in the US. Peach is the princess's Japanese name; there, the character has always been referred to as Princess Peach). Pauline is recently returning in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, although whether or not she still has a relationship with Mario is unknown at this point, especially since the Mario Toy Company has expanded its toy line to include Mini-Peach toys, among others.

Mario has rescued Peach multiple times since Super Mario Bros., often receiving a kiss as a reward. Although the true nature of their relationship is never revealed, it is evident that there is a mutual affection between the two characters. It has been revealed that Mario's nemesis Bowser is in love with the Princess, which explains why he constantly steals her away from Mario.

Mario once rescued Princess Daisy in Super Mario Land on the Game Boy, at the end of which Mario received a kiss. Additionally, the Japanese-only album Super Mario Compact Disco mentions Daisy as Mario's number-one girl (Peach does get a mention, but only once during the song "Super Mario USA"). In sports titles, though, Daisy hangs out with Luigi more often, leading to fan speculation that she may be romantically involved with Luigi rather than Mario. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the text on Princess Daisy's trophy states that "after her appearance in Mario Golf, some gossips started portraying her as Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach," this quote provides some confirmation and evidence that there is a romantic connection between Mario and Princess Peach.

In the Game Cube game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it is revealed that Mario is quite popular with many of the female characters. After Mario rescues Goombella from Lord Crump and his X-Naut soldiers at the beginning of the game, she rewards him with a kiss and at the end of the game in Goombella's e-mail it seems she has had a crush on him as well. Also when Mario and his companions return Flurrie's necklace to her, she forcibly gives him a kiss. Another recurring character, Ms. Mowz (who is also an optional partner) is instantly smitten by Mario when she first meets him and his companions and continuously flirts with him and gives him a kiss before she leaves every time she runs into them, much to the dismay of Goombella. Finally, another character who seemed to have a crush on Mario is Vivian, one of the Three Shadow Sirens. When Mario's name and body are stolen and is turned into a shadow of himself, he helps her search for a bomb she needed and is touched by his kindness even though she becomes aware that he has worse problems than her. At the end of the game, just as Mario is about to board the boat back to the Mushroom Kingdom with Princess Peach and Toadsworth, Vivian sounds like she is about to reveal her feelings for Mario but stops and says that he and Peach would make a great couple.

It should also be noted that during the scene in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars where Mario crashes Booster's wedding, Mario recieves a kiss from Peach if he recovers her accessories from the aisles quickly. However, if he takes too much time, Peach tricks Bowser and Booster into kissing Mario!

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Abilities and techniques

A Fire Flower as seen in Super Mario Bros.During the development of Donkey Kong, Mario was known simply as "Jumpman", named for his keen ability to jump exceptional heights. This ability is still described as Mario's greatest talent in most forms of media in which he is portrayed, and jumping -- both to access different areas of a level and as an offensive move -- remains a core element of gameplay in most Mario games, especially in the Super Mario Bros. series.

Mario's most commonly portrayed form of attack is jumping to stomp on the heads of enemies, first employed in Mario Bros. but better known from the later Super Mario Bros. game and its sequels. This jump-stomp move may entirely crush smaller enemies on the stage, and usually deals damage to larger ones, sometimes causing secondary effects as well. Most notably, this attack often enables Mario to knock the turtle-like Koopa Troopas back into their shells, which may slide across the stage, damaging other enemies, or Mario. Mario can also kick or toss these shells at enemies or barriers in many games.

Beyond this core mechanic, many subsequent games have elaborated on Mario's jumping-related abilities. Super Mario World added the ability to spin-jump, which allows Mario to break blocks beneath him. Later, the Gameboy remake of Donkey Kong allowed Mario to jump higher with consecutive jumps, and perform a back-flip. Super Mario 64 continued the use of these abilities as well as a long jump, a sideways flip called a Side Somersault, and a ground pound. It also made jumping off of walls much simpler to accomplish, and named it the "Wall Kick." Super Mario Sunshine then re-introduced the spin jump, but changed its function; in Sunshine, the spin-jump makes Mario jump a little bit higher, also falling more slowly than in a normal jump.

Mario also makes use of a wide array of items in most games in which he appears. The most prominent and best known of these is the Super Mushroom, which allows Mario to grow to twice his size. In this form he is usually labeled "Super Mario", and receives an additional hit-point; sustaining damage from most enemies will only cause Super Mario to shrink back down to "regular Mario" size. Mario is apparently stronger in his Super form, too, having the ability to break bricks with his fist. Additionally, in many games collecting a Fire Flower enables Mario to throw fireballs at enemies, and a Starman renders Mario temporarily impervious to harm. Beginning with Super Mario Bros. 3, leaves or feathers have been used as items that give Mario the ability to fly for short distances as well. Super Mario World introduced Mario's dinosaur friend Yoshi to the game series, whom Mario can ride. When riding Yoshi, Mario can clear spiky terrain and stomp foes that he otherwise cannot.

Although Mario is not usually portrayed to using weapons in games, one exception is the use of hammers as a weapons in some games, including Super Mario 3, as well as the Donkey Kong and Super Mario RPG series. In the Wrecking Crew series, Mario also wields a hammer to break bricks, but not offensively. Similarly, in the Super Mario RPG series, Mario uses his hammer to hit switches and solve puzzles as well as to hit enemies.

In Mario sports games, including the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, Mario is usually the most well-rounded playable character in his abilites, balancing power with speed or finesse. In the Mario Kart franchise, he's normally considered a middleweight or heavy middleweight character, with a slightly better top speed than most light and middleweights. In the Super Smash Bros. franchise, Mario also gains fighting abilites not closely related to those depicted in the platformer series. Among these are the use of a spinning attack called the Mario Tornado, and the ability to use fireballs without an item.

In the upcoming Mario game on the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario seems to gain special "Astronomical" abilities like blasting to other planets and grabbing things using the "Wii-Mote". Nintendo says that Mario might also have some other special abilities in this 3D platformer. In Nintendo's E3 press conference it was stated that you could use the controller "to bat away objects" and game footage seemed to show a spinning jump that reflected attacks.

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Metal Mario
Metal Mario started as a powerup for Mario in Super Mario 64. In Hazy Maze Cave, there was a pool of swirling metal which held a new area. Once the switch in that area was pushed, Metal caps were available. Metal Mario was completely invulnerable. Similar to Sega's Super Sonic, Metal Mario could harm enemies by simply running into them. The ability was limited to a time limit. When Metal Mario was hit, he would sometimes flinch, but would be completely invincible and not lose health. Along with this, Metal Mario would not have to breathe, which allowed him to walk in noxious gas and water. His heavy weight would allow him to be able to sink in water, helping in some missions. Metal Mario would also lose the ability to speak (which wasn't important, just a side note to show he truly became metal). In Super Smash Bros, Metal Mario would come back as a sub-boss. he would deliver nasty damage to opponents and took double damage to be knocked off the stage. Metal Mario's strategy would be the movement of which he would walk back and forth delivering loud thuds on easier difficulties he would merely hit the player if the character got in the way. The higher the difficulty, the more aggressive to the point where Metal Mario would be using extremely furious Smash attacks with devastating combos. Additonally, it took double damage to knock him as far since he weighed double that of a normal character. The arena would be set in that of a metallic mine to give an interesting atmosphere to the fight.

In Super Smash Bros Melee, Metal Mario would return a little more aggressive than before; however, after unlocking Luigi, it would not be just Metal Mario the player would have to deal with. Metal Mario would not only be aided by Metal Luigi, but both characters would be monstrously difficult at the higher difficulties due to the increase in attacks and combos from the last game. Other Metal characters could appear as enemies in classic mode, although Metal Mario (and Metal Luigi if Luigi was unlocked) would be a battle every time played in Adventure Mode. The Metal Box was a power up (looked like the green ! box in Mario 64) and could turn any character metal.

For some odd reason, Metal Mario appeared as a secret unlockable character in Mario Golf. He was very strong, having an even longer drive than the super-powerful Bowser!

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Mainstream success

Mario as seen on The Saturday Supercade. 
Mario as seen in his animated TV series.Since his creation, Mario has established himself as a pop culture icon having starred in three television shows (produced by Nintendo with DIC, between 1989 and 1991), comic books, and in a feature film where he was played by Bob Hoskins. Nintendo of Japan also produced a 60-minute anime feature starring Mario and his friends in 1986, although this film has never been released in the United States. He has also appeared on lunchboxes, t-shirts, in magazines, in commercials, in candy form, and as a plush toy. There was even a book series, the Nintendo Adventure Books. In 1990, a national survey found that Mario was more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse. In addition, Mario made history in 2003 by becoming the first video game character to be honored with a wax figure in the legendary Hollywood Wax Museum. In 2005, Jonathan Mann even wrote an opera based on the character, and performed The Mario Opera at the California Institute of the Arts.

Mario is the official video game mascot for Nintendo, and is synonymous with the Nintendo brand. Because of this, Mario appears almost exclusively in Nintendo games on Nintendo systems.

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Special cameo appearances
In the earlier days of the NES and Game Boy, Mario did several cameos, usually in the early sports titles on both systems. Often he was depicted as the referee, such as in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! or Tennis, but was also the playable character in both versions of Nintendo's early Golf-title. However some of his other cameos were more bizarre, such as the one in the Breakout-clone Alleyway which featured Mario on the game's box-art and also at the beginning of each stage where Mario jumps "into" the paddle. He was also featured on the Game Over screen for the Game Boy version of Qix dressed in Mexican clothes, playing a guitar in the desert next to a cactus with a vulture perched on it.

Mario made brief appearances in three games from Nintendo's other popular franchise, the Legend of Zelda series. In A Link to the Past, his picture hangs on the walls of certain village houses. In Ocarina of Time, a picture of him (along with Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and Bowser) is visible through a window in the castle courtyard where Link meets Zelda. In Majora's Mask, one of the masks on the Happy Mask Salesman's pack depicted Mario's face.

In 1999, Mario was included in the cast for Nintendo's popular fighting game, Super Smash Bros., for the Nintendo 64. He returned with the cast from the original in the 2001 GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and will also appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, an upcoming game for the Wii. In the recent Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer, Mario was seen picking up a Smash Bros. emblem (as an item), then he threw out a large fire wave at his opponents. In this series, he is considered a well-balanced character and is easy for most players to use.

In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, he appears on Otacon's desk next to a Yoshi figurine. When players shoot the Mario figure, they regain HP.

In the GameCube version of NBA Street V3, Mario makes a cameo alongside Luigi and Peach as their own playable basketball team, along with their own exclusive Nintendo themed court. SSX On Tour also features the three and an exclusive Nintendo themed track.

Mario has also made a cameo appearance in the Nintendo DS game Nintendogs. In this game, his hat can be unlocked, as well as a toy Mario in a radio-controlled kart. The latter is only unlockable on the Dachshund & Friends version.

In the game "Animal Crossing: Wild World" you can buy Mario's hat in the clothes store owned by the Able Sisters. In the game, the hat is called "Big Bro's Hat". You can also buy an accessory in the game that resembles a fake mustache and nose called the "Big Bro's Stache".

In 1080 Avalanche, Mario appeared on the bottom of a snowboard and as an ice sculpture.

In the game Pilotwings 64, Mario's face can be seen with those of the Presidents on Mt. Rushmore, if his face is shot, it turns into Wario's face.

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Cultural references
Mario's popularity has been parodied and/or referenced in many television shows other than his own. For example, he appears in two episodes of The Simpsons: in "Marge Be Not Proud", he, along with Luigi, Sonic, and Donkey Kong try to convince Bart to steal a video game; and in "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", Mario is an Italian tourist who, when visiting Homer (famous after an embarrassing video on the Internet), gets trash cans thrown at him - just like Donkey Kong, but is defeated by Homer when he gets a hammer from the treehouse. He is also parodied in the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II", when Fry asks the What-If Machine what would life be like as a video game. In the sequence that follows, Mario is the Italian ambassador at the United Nations. 
In a crossover spoof on Attack of the Show, Mario and Luigi are portrayed in a The Sopranos-type story. 
Action figures of Mario, Luigi, and Wario are also shown taking part in a Fast and the Furious-meets-Cannonball Run parody on an early episode of Robot Chicken. 
In an episode of The Sopranos, A.J. is seen playing Mario Kart 64. 
In the cartoon Megas XLR, episode 18 "Thanksgiving Throwdown", parodies of Mario and Luigi appear, known as "The Super Fabio Brothers". The Fabio brothers attack using wrenches and their famed jumping ability. 
The King of Town, a character from the popular Homestar Runner series, dressed up as Mario during a Halloween Special. There was even a fake game that can be played through an Easter Egg called "Super Kingio Bros." The game, however, is unwinnable because the KoT is too fat to jump over the first enemy encountered. 
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Trivia
Mario's theme music in Super Mario Bros., composed by Koji Kondo, is highly recognizable. Sample. 
Former NHL hockey player, Mario Lemieux was given the nickname "Super Mario" by the media during his illustrious career. Mario Williams, the #1 draft pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, was also given the nickname "Super Mario". 
He has a Neapolitan accent. 
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Appearances on non-Nintendo platforms

A screenshot of Level 1 of one of the Ion Shell Mario programs on the TI-83.Nintendo holds the copyright to Mario in many nations and retained these rights for their own use with few exceptions. Mario appeared in quite a few educational PC titles in the United States such as Mario Teaches Typing and in some very early games for non-Nintendo systems such as the Atari 2600 and the Mattel Intellivision. Philips made several games, such as Hotel Mario, featuring Nintendo characters for their Philips CD-i which was the result of a compromise with Nintendo over failing to release a joint CD-ROM product. Mario Is Missing!, another PC game, was later ported to the NES and SNES much like its sequel Mario's Time Machine.

There are many free fan-made games such as Mario Forever and Super Mario: Blue Twilight DX [1], and mini-movies using the Mario likeness available on the Internet such as the violent Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom cartoon series. Fan-made games vary from clones of the original games to more novel games that merely incorporate the Mario characters. Fans have produced and distributed simple games incorporating Mario on graphing calculators such as the TI-83. There have also been a number of fan-made games using the Super Mario World engine. [2]

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See also
List of Mario games 
List of best-selling computer and video games 
List of Mario series characters 
List of Nintendo characters 
List of Nintendo games created by Shigeru Miyamoto 
List of video games developed by Nintendo 
Shigeru Miyamoto 
Luigi 
Princess Peach 
Princess Daisy 
Bowser 
Donkey Kong 
Dry Bones 
Toad 
Yoshi 
Wario 
Waluigi 
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Notes and references
^ David Low (2005). Nintendo reveal sales figures. Australia's PAL Gaming Network. Retrieved on February 12, 2006. 
^ Demaria, R: "High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games", page 238. McGraw Hill-Osbourne, 2002 
^ Retro Gamer Magazine, vol. 2, issue 2 
^ Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. Nintendo (2006). Retrieved on 2006-18-7. 
^ O???Connell, Patricia (November 7, 2005). Meet Mario's Papa. BusinessWeek. Retrieved on February 12, 2006. 
Sheef, David. Game Over, Nintendo's Battle to Dominate the Game Industry. Hodder and Stoughton LTD, UK 1999. ISBN 0340751932. 
Super Mario Wiki 
Super Mario Bros. at GameFAQs 
Holidays on the Net 
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External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 
MarioMario's World (Nintendo of America Official Site, currently replaced by New Super Mario Bros. info) 
Mario's Megasite (Nintendo of Europe Official Site) 
Super Mario Wiki, a wiki dedicated to everything Mario 
The Mushroom Kingdom 
Super Mario Bros. Headquarters 
The Evolution of Mario History of Mario Sprites 
Mario: The Unauthorized Biography 
Video game parodies with Mario on Newgrounds 
Mario Licensees at MobyGames 
Mario Monsters List of Monsters from Mario Games 
Mario at Answers.com 
Mario online games, images and info (also incorporating Sonic the Hedgehog) 



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Metal Gear Solid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the original Metal Gear Solid released for the Sony PlayStation. For the Game Boy Color spinoff of the same name, see Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. 
Metal Gear Solid 

Developer(s) Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (West) 
Publisher(s) PlayStation: Konami
Microsoft Windows: Microsoft 
Designer(s) Hideo Kojima 
Release date(s) September 3, 1998 (JP)
October 21, 1998 (NA)
February 26, 1999 (EU) 
Genre(s) Stealth action 
Mode(s) Single player 
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (M)
CERO: 15+
ELSPA: 15+
OFLC: M 15+ 
Platform(s) PlayStation, Microsoft Windows 
Media 2 CDs 
Input Controller, Keyboard 
Metal Gear Solid (メタルギアソリッド, Metaru Gia Soriddo?), commonly abbreviated as MGS, is a stealth-based game developed by Konami and first published for the PlayStation video game console in 1998. It is the third canonical game in the Metal Gear series, produced and directed by Hideo Kojima, with artwork by Yoji Shinkawa. Metal Gear Solid alternates stealth gameplay and expository cinematic sequences. It has frequently been selected by a number of gaming publications as the greatest action game on the PlayStation.

Metal Gear Solid was groundbreaking in its use of spoken dialogue and cinematic presentation, which served to enhance its intricate plot. The availability of 3D graphics and the extensive storage capacity of the CD-ROM format, compared to the limited cartridge format the Metal Gear team had to work with during the late 1980's and early 1990's, made it possible to create a more cinematic version of Hideo Kojima's vision for what its predecessors, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX2 could have been like.

After a teaser showing at E3 in 1997, it became one of the most highly anticipated games of its time.[citation needed] It topped the sales charts upon its release in 1998,[citation needed] and held the number one spot in the ELSPA UK videogames chart for eight consecutive weeks, a record at the time.[citation needed]

To date, Metal Gear Solid has spawned one sequel (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, released in 2001) and a prequel (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, released in 2004). A fourth game, titled Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is currently in development, set for a 2007 release. MGS1 has been enhanced and remade by Silicon Knights for the Nintendo GameCube with the subtitle The Twin Snakes.

Contents [hide]
1 Plot summary 
2 Game details 
2.1 Cinematic presentation 
2.2 Real-world references 
2.3 Breaking the fourth wall 
3 Alternate versions 
3.1 Japanese release 
3.2 North American release 
3.3 European release 
3.4 Metal Gear Solid: Integral 
3.5 VR Missions 
3.6 Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes 
3.7 Metal Gear Solid comic book 
3.8 Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel 
3.9 Game.com Version 
3.10 Bleem!cast 
4 Cast 
5 Music 
6 External links 
6.1 Official 
6.2 Others 



[edit]
Plot summary
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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Solid Snake entering the facility where Metal Gear REX is being developed.In February of 2005, during a training mission at a nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, a fictional and remote island off the coast of Alaska, a group of genetically enhanced soldiers known as the Next Generation Special Forces (NGSF, or "genome soldiers") stage a rebellion and seize control of the facility. The rebellion is initiated by Liquid Snake, the squad leader of a covert black ops organization named FOXHOUND. The terrorists threaten the White House with a nuclear strike and have the following demands: the remains of Big Boss, the man considered to be the greatest warrior of the 20th century, one billion dollars, and later in the game, the vaccine to the programmable virus FOXDIE.

At the request of the US Secretary of Defense, the former head of FOXHOUND Colonel Roy Campbell returns from retirement and enlists the help of Solid Snake, an elite spy and ex-FOXHOUND operative, to rescue the hostages and eliminate nuclear threat. Solid Snake must enter the base alone, supported only by a handful of specialists communicating with him over a two-way radio Codec embedded in his body through the injection of nanomachines.


Solid Snake conversing with the DARPA chief.Having infiltrated the facility, Snake immediately sets about locating and freeing the hostages. The first hostage Snake locates is Donald Anderson, the chief of DARPA, who appears to die of a heart attack before Snake is able to free him from his cell. The next hostage is Kenneth Baker, head of Armstech, who explains that to deactivate Metal Gear, Snake will need three key-cards, which have been entrusted to another loose cannon moving around Shadow Moses: a rookie soldier named Meryl. Baker then mysteriously dies from what appears to be a heart attack similar to that suffered by the DARPA chief.

Along the way Snake encounters and battles various members of FOXHOUND, such as Revolver Ocelot, skilled gunfighter who loses an arm after a fight with Snake when he is attacked by a biomechanical ninja, Vulvan Raven, and Inuit shaman who attacks Snake with an Abrams tank, Psycho Mantis, a psychic and telekinetic takes control of Snake's ally and uses her to attack him, and Sniper Wolf, a beautiful sharpshooter who shoots an ally of Snake and engages him in a sniper duel.

Since FOXHOUND seems to have the ability to follow through with their threat of launching a nuclear weapon, Snake contacts Otacon (Dr. Hal Emmerich, PhD), REX's primary engineer, who was also captive on the island. First, Snake is forced to rescue him from the cyborg ninja Gray Fox.

Following the encounter with Otacon, Snake meets up with Meryl and the pair attempt to reach REX's hangar on the other side of the Shadow Moses complex. On the way they successfully eliminate Psycho Mantis, despite his occasional possession of Meryl. The journey to the hangar, on the other hand, is less successful: it involves a long concrete alleyway with a communications tower at the far end, where they are ambushed by FOXHOUND's Sniper Wolf, who shoots Meryl in both legs and an arm. To save her, Snake must backtrack to one of the first buildings in the facility and retrieve a PSG-1 sniper rifle, which he uses to duel Sniper Wolf at long range. During this interval the injured Meryl is captured. Believing that he has defeated Sniper Wolf, Snake attempts to cross the alley, but he too is captured and taken to meet Liquid Snake.


Snake is tortured by Revolver Ocelot.The terrorist leader reveals that the two Snakes are twins, each a genetically-manipulated clone of Big Boss created as part of a secret project titled "Les Enfants Terribles." Liquid professes to hate Snake, as he believes that Snake was given all of Big Boss's dominant traits, while Liquid was given the recessive traits. Liquid leaves Snake in the hands of Revolver Ocelot, who uses a torture device to try to extract information from him. During his captivity Snake finds himself in a holding cell with the body of Donald Anderson, who appears to have been dead for much longer than a few hours.

Eventually Snake escapes from the cell and returns to the communications tower where he and Meryl were ambushed. While climbing the tower he is attacked by Liquid Snake, who is piloting an Mi-24 Hind-D attack helicopter. While searching for a Stinger missile launcher to attack Liquid, Snake encounters Otacon, who asks Snake for a solider's perspective on love. Snake manages to shoot down Liquid and the helicopter, however when he finally descends from the tower he is ambushed for a second time by Sniper Wolf. Snake kills her, and Otacon arrives in time to bid her a tearful goodbye.

Snake has finally reached the Underground Base where REX is kept. At this point, Master Miller calls with startling news. Naomi claimed earlier that her Japanese grandfather worked in the FBI under Hoover???which, according to Miller, is a lie. Snake then encounters Vulcan Raven, this time equipped with an M61 Vulcan gatling gun. After being defeated, he reveals that the DARPA Chief Snake encountered was not the real one, but was rather Decoy Octopus, FOXHOUND's impersonation specialist. Why he did this, Raven leaves Snake to figure out for himself. Finally, Miller informs Snake and Col. Campbell that "Naomi Hunter" is no such person; she must be, in fact, a spy affiliated with FOXHOUND. He also reveals some sort of secret weapon: "FOXDIE," a secret assassination weapon???a genetically engineered virus that kills only specific people. Supposedly, it was deployed by Snake during this mission... And it kills by simulating a heart attack. With all this in mind, Naomi is placed under arrest.

Otacon, who has been hacking his way into Shadow Moses's files, has finally figured out the secret of the card key Snake got from Meryl. The nuclear weapon requires three card keys, but the single key Snake has is all three of them, because it is made of a "shape memory alloy" and will change form when exposed to different temperatures. The card keys are one-use-only: inserting them when the nuke is armed will disarm it, and vice-versa. Snake uses his three-in-one card key???and then, to his alarm, hears the computer report that the nuke is armed. Liquid Snake, chortling triumphantly, reveals how he's been manipulating the mission from the start: by posing as Master Miller. He explains that the DARPA Chief died under Ocelot's torture without revealing his half of the nuke's arming codes, but from Baker they learned the existence of the three-in-one key, which functions regardless of arming codes. Decoy Octopus then disguised himself as Chief Anderson to fool Snake into arming the nuke, exactly as he just did. Snake now has only one option: destroy Metal Gear REX.


Metal Gear REX.Snake is in trouble until the cyborg ninja reappears. He reveals himself to be Gray Fox (Frank Jaeger), Snake's former FOXHOUND comrade, thought dead for six years. At the cost of his own life, he destroys REX's radar dish, forcing Liquid to open the cockpit itself and observe the situation manually. Before his death, Gray Fox reveals that he raised Naomi Hunter after killing her parents years ago, for which he has never forgiven himself. Snake succeeds in destroying REX, but is knocked unconscious, while Liquid remains intact. He lectures Snake on the details of the Les Enfants Terribles project, not to mention the gene therapy that created the Genome Soldiers, and reveals Meryl, bound and near death. Campbell then calls and explains that he has been removed from command in favor of Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman, who is about to drop nuclear weapons onto Shadow Moses. Liquid and Snake duel hand-to-hand aboard the carcass of REX, and after Snake wins, he escapes in a Jeep, using its mounted machine gun for a final confrontation with Liquid (who appears to be impervious to bullets; it's FOXDIE that ultimately kills him). Finally, Campbell reasserts his command by getting in contact with President George Sears, recalls the bombers and nukes, and helps arrange for Snake's departure.


The ending of the game is determined earlier on during the torture sequence.The game features two possible endings, affected by performance in the torture session. The player is given an option to 'break' and surrender, but if the player does, Meryl is revealed to have died during Snake's bout with Liquid, and Otacon drives the jeep. If the player succeeds in withstanding Ocelot's torture, however, Meryl lives and drives the jeep, while Otacon stays behind in the "doomed" base (the attack on the base having been cancelled).

Finally, after the credits, the player is treated to a one-sided telephone report between Revolver Ocelot and a mysterious party. Ocelot reveals to his superior that Liquid was wrong: Snake was, in fact, the inferior one. But unlike many would think, Ocelot wasn't referring to genes at all. Ocelot also retains data from the test-firing of REX's nuclear railgun, and plans to sell it on the black market. In the "Meryl" ending, he reveals that neither Solid nor Liquid knew of the existence of their third twin: Solidus Snake, a "well-balanced individual" and the man with whom Ocelot is now conversing. Finally, he signs off: "Yes. Thank you. Good-bye. Mr. President."

[edit]
Game details
[edit]
Cinematic presentation

Solid Snake (right) is hiding behind a crate in a store room.The entire game was fully voiced, with an unprecedented amount of quality voice acting talent. The majority of the game's dialogue takes place during radio conversations between Solid Snake (Akio Otsuka/David Hayter, Japanese and English respectively) and other characters through a transmitting device called a "Codec". The player was also free to initiate additional Codec calls during gameplay, which allowed additional details outside of the core storyline to be gleaned. Upon completion, the game features a rolling demo mode, in which the player may watch every cutscene and Codec conversation in the game without actually playing through it. The game contains over four hours of dialogue, which contributed to its shipping on two CDs.

The rest of the plot unfolds during fully-voiced cut scenes of ground-breaking quality. These scenes featured motion captured movements, elaborate camera shots, and special effects. They were rendered in real-time using the game's 3D engine. This decision to go with real-time rendering cost the scenes some realism: the characters' mouths did not move during dialogue and instead a slight jiggle of the head was used to represent speech.

[edit]
Real-world references
The game, though set in (what was then) a near future, retains many elements of today's global, political, economic and military climate. Part of The Pentagon's urgency on Snake's sneaking mission is that the President is about to sign the fictional START III treaty, which REX's nuclear railgun violates. Of course, President Sears has not been fully briefed on REX's abilities, for reasons of plausible deniability. Nastasha Romanenko's parents died of cancer from helping clean up after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. One of the co-developers of Metal Gear REX in the game is Rivermore National Labs, an obvious reference to Livermore National Labs (or perhaps simply a mistranslation, as Japanese does not differentiate between "L" and "R" sounds). Finally, many of the game's gadgets and weapons (the SOCOM pistol, the FAMAS assault rifle, Ocelot's dual Colt Single Action Army, and Meryl's Desert Eagle handgun) are drawn directly from real life, though a number of others (the Soliton radar, the Codec radio system, and optical camouflage, for example) are totally fictional, if superficially plausible.

[edit]
Breaking the fourth wall
A stylistic quirk, Kojima's script breaks the fourth wall in a number of places.

In the PlayStation version of the game, Psycho Mantis performs a variety of stunts to prove the truth of his telepathic and psychokinetic powers. First, he scans the player's memory card for save files from other Konami games and drops pithy comments if he finds them. (In the Japanese version, if save files from both Snatcher and Policenauts are found, Mantis delivers a message of gratitude from Kojima himself. One example in the US version is Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) He also asks the player to drop his DualShock controller on the ground and then invokes the controller's vibration function in a violent manner. As one of his battle attacks, he is able to turn the game's screen black, with only the word "HIDEO" on the top corner of the screen, with characters resembling those of some TV sets e.g. Sony's (a pun of "video" as reference to Hideo Kojima), as if the player's television were malfunctioning. Finally, to counter his "mind-reading ability", the player must unplug the controller from Controller Port 1 and insert it into the infrequently-used Controller Port 2 instead. 
In the Gamecube update, Psycho Mantis does all the same things as his Playstation counterpart, with a few minor differences; when the player shifts to first-person mode, after a while the camera becomes Psycho Mantis' point of view instead of Snake's. There are also several extra tricks that happen while fighting Psycho Mantis, such as the room appearing to tilt. This is not unlike a feature of another Gamecube title, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, where the main characters would begin to hallucinate as they lose their sanity. 
In the Science Lab, where Snake must fight the Cyborg Ninja to a standstill, before meeting Otacon, there is a Playstation Console with a plugged in controller (interestingly, digital rather than Dualshock analogue), visible to those who care to scan the work surfaces in the centre of the room. 
In The Twin Snakes, the Playstation is replaced with a Nintendo Gamecube and a Wavebird. 
Early in the game, the Codec frequency for Meryl (140.15) can only be found on the back of the game's box or jewel case. This was initially commissioned in an effort to curb piracy, as without contacting Meryl, the player cannot progress in the game. However, this trick could be side-tracked (possibly for those who lost their case) by calling Campbell via Codec five times in a row (or by doing it the slow way and running through each possible frequency until she answers). This puzzle is not original to Metal Gear Solid however, as its predecessor Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX2 also required the player to look behind the game's packaging when Campbell changes frequency number. 

Solid Snake (right) speaks with Mei Ling (left) on his Codec two-way radio.In the conversation with Mei Ling, pictured below at right, Mei Ling tells the player (via Snake) that they should be thankful that they have enough time to play video games. 
Just before Snake is captured and tortured, Mei Ling contacts Snake by Codec and says "Snake, wouldn't now be a good time to save your mission?" 
In fact, Mei Ling's very presence in the game breaks the fourth wall, the same way Rosemary's presence and Otacon's alternative Codec number do. Rosemary and Mei Ling are dubbed 'Systems Analysts', although their only effect on the player is to save the game, which they announce openly across Codec. Otacon however, is the only person that Snake communicates to on the Tanker chapter, and so only one number would be needed where he can contact Otacon. Snake openly breaks the fourth wall however, after he asks 'How can I check in and save my progress?'. Otacon then continues to destroy the fourth wall by saying that he has a second frequency for that task. 
During the battle with the Hind D, the Colonel advises Snake that he can determine the gunship's position by following the sound of its rotors. However, if the player has set the game's sound to monaural mode, Campbell and Mei Ling will express pity. 
During the Revolver Ocelot torture sequence, he warns about the player using a controller with an auto-fire function; if the game detects an unlikely number of controller inputs, the player hits a game over. And in the Gamecube update, Ocelot actually adresses the player directly, warning the player not to go into first person mode. After the first two torture sessions, Naomi Hunter, in a Codec conversation, comforts Snake's wounds???the player's sore arm after the torture sequence???by asking the player to place the controller on his shoulder. The controller then vibrates, under the guise that it is the nanomachines in Snake's blood that are easing his tense muscles. If the game is played without the DualShock controller, however, this feature is not present. 
Master Miller also gives advice which is obviously intended for the player rather than Snake. For instance he warns that people's reaction speed decreases around 3 AM (obviously warning players not to play in the middle of the night) and that if you feel tired you should get some rest. At one point he also tells Snake to trust his instincts "as a soldier, as a gamer". 
[edit]
Alternate versions
[edit]
Japanese release

Japanese Premium Package box and contents.Two versions of Metal Gear Solid were initially released in Japan; a stand-alone version containing the game itself, and a premium package containing the game, a t-shirt, a B4-sized pamphlet, memory card stickers, a serialized FOXHOUND dog tag, and a CD soundtrack containing music from the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The premium package that was sold to the general public in Japan came in a silver-colored metallic box, while a gold version was given to Konami stockholders. Both the premium package and the standard release came with a demo version of Gensô Suikoden II.


[edit]
North American release
Metal Gear Solid was released first in Japan, over six weeks prior to the North American release. As a result, the American version has some minor refinements added during the localization process, such as adjustable difficulty settings (the Japanese version was equivalent to the North American version's "Easy" setting, with an unlockable "No Radar" mode), an unlockable "demo theater" for viewing all cut scenes and Codec conversations, and an unlockable tuxedo outfit for Snake in addition to a new skin for the Cyborg Ninja from the Japanese version, whereby the blue and red elements of his exoskelton were swapped. The features added in the English-language version, including the English-language voice track, appeared in Metal Gear Solid: Integral, released only in Japan.

The English script was translated by Jeremy Blaustein, who localized the English script for the Sega CD version of Snatcher. While his work in Metal Gear Solid was accurate to the original Japanese script, many of the lines in the games were Americanized by Blaustein.[citation needed]

The release was one of the few PlayStation titles to be emulated on the Sega Dreamcast using Bleemcast!. The emulator ran the game in Dreamcast's standard 640x480 resolution and added some additional filtering effects as well.

[edit]
European release

The European cover of Metal Gear Solid.In the European releases of Metal Gear Solid some countries received a version of the game dubbed in their own languages, such as Spanish, French and Italian. In contrast, the European releases of later Metal Gear titles featured only English dubbing with subtitles in the respective country's language. The European versions included a playable demo of Silent Hill. A premium package was also released in Europe; although its contents differ from the Japanese version. It contains the game, its soundtrack, a t-shirt, postcards, dog tags, a reversible poster, and memory card stickers. The dogtags in this package have a generic design with the Metal Gear Solid and Konami logos, instead of the FOXHOUND design from the Japanese version. The European version also differed from the American version by introducing 'Extreme' play mode, on top of the 'Easy', 'Normal' and 'Hard' modes. This version was more difficult as it introduced more restrictions on the player, for example extended guard vision distance.


[edit]
Metal Gear Solid: Integral

The cover of Metal Gear Solid: Integral.Released on June 24, 1999 in Japan only, Metal Gear Solid: Integral was a typical international version release. It included the additional features added in the North American release (such as the English-language voice acting and an additional unlockable outfit for Solid Snake), several entirely new features, and an extra disc of entirely new content.

The new features added to Integral that weren't present in the North American release include an additional difficulty level ("Very Easy", which gives the player an MP5 with unlimited ammo and silencer already equipped), a new costume for Meryl based on Solid Snake's sneaking suit, unlockable first-person view and "Alternate Round" (which has different placement and routes for guards) modes, and two additional radio frequencies with messages from the developers and secret music. Players could also download their clear data to the PocketStation, to play a special classified mission with Naomi or exchange their clear data with other players.

While the PlayStation version of Metal Gear Solid: Integral was never released outside of Japan, it was ported to PC for western markets. The Microsoft Windows version of Metal Gear Solid released in 2000 in North America and Europe is actually based on Integral and even uses the Integral moniker on the game's title screen. As such, it includes all of the extra features (save for the PocketStation link) and the VR Disc.

[edit]
VR Missions

The special third disc originally created for Integral was released in North America as a stand-alone game named Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions.This disc was released as a stand-alone game for English-speaking markets: in North America as Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (released on September 30, 1999) and in Europe as Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions (released on October 29, 1999). The European version required a copy of the original MGS in order to be played.) This disc includes 300 virtual reality training missions, ranging from simple tests of sneaking or fighting skill, to various absurd tasks like fighting Genola (a giant Genome Soldier with some very Godzilla-like tendencies, Solving murder mysteries, for example, finding out who the murderer is with clues left behind at the crime scene such as a popsticle or a broken survalience camera out of 3 suspects and taking the role of the Cyborg Ninja in three short missions. This disc also included three pre-release trailers for Metal Gear Solid, a photoshoot mode where the player could take pictures of Mei Ling and Naomi, and an unlockable preview picture of Metal Gear RAY from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

[edit]
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Main article: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
In the first quarter of 2004, an enhanced remake titled Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was released for the Nintendo GameCube. It features re-recorded voice acting, updated graphics, and gameplay features borrowed from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It contained cutscenes directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and was developed by Nintendo's then-second-party developer Silicon Knights.

[edit]
Metal Gear Solid comic book
In September 2004, IDW Publications began running a comic book version of Metal Gear Solid, written by Kris Oprisko and illustrated by Ashley Wood. The comic mimics Yoji Shinkawa's gritty style using a palette of greys and rough, sketchy paintings as panels. This first arc is now available in two paperback volumes, each with 6 issues and a cover gallery. Due near the end of 2006 is Metal Gear Solid: The Complete, featuring all 12 issues of the comic book, a cover gallery, and exclusive artwork. More recently, a new arc has launched telling the tale of "Sons of Liberty", including a special issue #0, containing character info and a special 5 page story.

[edit]
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel
In January 2006, Kojima Productions announced a new title for the PlayStation Portable titled Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, known as Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée in Japan. It will be based on the comics by IDW Publications, and will include enchancements such as sound effects, music, and animation. The title delivers the viewing experience in two interactive modes which were designed to give further insight into comics. Upon viewing the comic, the player presses the square button to open a "memory search" mode that allows them to freely search for characters and items by navigating the screen in three dimensions. Anything discovered is added to a database in which the content can be traded with users via Wi-Fi. Also included is a mission mode where information that the player has collected from the comic is added into a library. Missions are assigned requiring that the player to properly connect together the gathered info.[1] The title was released in North America on June 13, 2006.

[edit]
Game.com Version
A version was planned for the ill-fated Game.com, but the project was cancelled before it could be completed. At one point, a gameplay video was released to members of a Game.com newsgroup, but the video remains obscure and the game unreleased.

[edit]
Bleem!cast
In 2000, the company Bleem made a version of the PlayStation emulator for Dreamcast that allowed users to play MGS on Sega's console. The game contained an option for sharper graphics.

[edit]
Cast
Metal Gear Solid's English-language voice cast is a typical cross-section of the voice-acting talent at the end of the 20th century, and many of the voice actors in both major and minor roles are experienced voice actors. Other studios that have drawn on this pool of voice-acting talent include LucasArts (particularly Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) and Hanna-Barbera Productions (including such shows as The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy). Despite their experience, however, the majority of the credited cast, save for David Hayter and Doug Stone, were credited under pseudonyms.

Lead cast 
David Hayter lent his voice to Solid Snake, and it has since become his highest-profile speaking role and, save for his later screenwriting work on comic book movies X-Men and its sequel, X2: X-Men United, his highest-profile role of any kind. Curiously, the European edition manual (but not the actual game) and certain U.S. demo versions credit Hayter under the pseudonym Sean Barker, the character he played in Guyver 2: Dark Hero. 
Veteran seiyu Akio Otsuka voiced Solid Snake in the Japanese-language version. 
Cam Clarke, already noted for his work in Robotech, the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, and the English-language adaptation of Akira, voiced Liquid Snake. He used the pseudonym "James Flinders". 
Banjou Ginga voiced Liquid Snake in the Japanese-language version. 
Debi Mae West, credited as "Mae Zadler", voiced Meryl Silverburgh. 
Kyoko Terase voiced Meryl in the Japanese-language version. 
Supporting characters 
Character Voice Actor (Japanese) Voice Actor (English) 
Naomi Hunter Hiromi Tsuru Jennifer Hale (as Carren Learning) 
Hal Emmerich Hideyuki Tanaka Christopher Randolph (as Christopher Fritz) 
Roy Campbell Takeshi Aono Paul Eiding (as Paul Otis) 
Mei Ling Houko Kuwashima Kim Mai Guest (as Kim Nguyen) 
Gray Fox Kaneto Shiozawa Greg Eagles (as George Byrd) 
Nastasha Romanenko Eiko Yamada Renee Raudman (as Renee Collete) 
Revolver Ocelot Koji Totani Patric Zimmerman (as Patrick Laine) 
Vulcan Raven Yukitoshi Hori Peter Lurie (as Chuck Farley) 
Psycho Mantis Kazuyuki Sogabe Doug Stone 
Sniper Wolf Naoko Nakamura Tasia Valenza (as Julie Monroe) 
Donald Anderson Masaharu Sato Greg Eagles (as George Byrd) 
Kenneth Baker Yuzuru Fujimoto Allan Lurie (as Bert Stewart) 
Jim Houseman Tomohisa Aso William Bassett (as Frederick Bloggs) 

Incidental voices 
Character Voice Actor (Japanese) Voice Actor (English) 
Genome Soldier A Masaya Takatsuka Doug Stone 
Genome Soldier B Naoki Imamura Peter Lurie (as Chuck Farley) 
PAL Computer Voice Naoko Nakamura Tasia Valenza (as Julie Monroe) 
Enemy Soldier  Scott Dolph 
Enemy Soldier/Johnny Sasaki Naoki Imamura Dean Schofield (as Dino Schofield) 
[edit]
Music
Main article: Metal Gear Solid Original Game Soundtrack
The Metal Gear Solid score was composed by a number of in-house musicians at Konami, including Kazuki Muraoka, composer of the soundtrack of the NES version of the original Metal Gear. The in-game music has a more synthetic feel, often similar to ambient music, which increases pace and begins to introduce strings during the more tense moments. It has a distinctly videogame-style looping nature. Cut scene music, however, is more overtly cinematic, with stronger use of orchestral and choral elements.

A relaxing and contemplative ending theme by Rika Muranaka, titled "The Best is Yet To Come", covers the game's end-credits sequence and features Irish lyrics sung(sung in gaelic) by Aoife Ní Fhearraigh. An alternate ending theme, which is heard upon completing the game three times, was written by composer TAPPY. This theme was previously featured in the game's trailers, and also set the style for later Metal Gear games.

These three styles (synthetic game music, orchestral cut-scene music, and a vocal ending theme) are revisited throughout the later games such as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. (A brassier, more orchestral soundtrack, inspired largely by the soundtrack of the James Bond films, was recorded for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.)

The music used during the VR Training mode is a reworking of the main theme from the original MSX version of Metal Gear. Added music from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is included in the VR Missions expansion as well.

[edit]
External links
[edit]
Official
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 
Metal Gear SolidMetal Gear Solid official website (Japanese) 
Metal Gear Solid: Integral official website (Japanese) 
Metal Gear Solid Windows version official website 
[edit]
Others
Metal Gear Solid at MobyGames 
Metal Gear Week on 1UP.com, with Hideo Kojima interview 
Metal Gear Solid at the Metal Gear Wiki 
Metal Gear Source, article on Metal Gear Solid 



The Metal Gear Series[ Hide ]
Main series Metal Gear | MG2: Solid Snake | Metal Gear Solid | MGS2: Sons of Liberty
MGS3: Snake Eater | MGS: Portable Ops | MGS4: Guns of the Patriots 
Supplemental titles MGS: Integral | The Document of MGS2 | MGS2: Substance | MGS: The Twin Snakes | MGS3: Subsistence | MG Saga | MGS: Digital Graphic Novel 
Side stories Snake's Revenge | Ghost Babel | Acid | Acid 2 | Metal Gear Solid (film) 
Characters Metal Gears | Solid Snake | Big Boss | Raiden | Gray Fox | Roy Campbell | Revolver Ocelot | Hal Emmerich | Meryl Silverburgh
Recurring characters | Metal Gear 1 & 2 | Metal Gear Solid | Metal Gear Solid 2 | Metal Gear Solid 3 | Metal Gear Acid series 
Locations and Organizations Outer Heaven | Zanzibar Land | Big Shell | Philosophers | Patriots | FOXHOUND | Genome Soldiers | Philanthropy | Dead Cell | Sons of Liberty 
Creators Konami | Kojima Productions | Hideo Kojima
Yoji Shinkawa | Shuyo Murata | Shinta Nojiri | Norihiko Hibino | Akio Otsuka | David Hayter 
Timelines Metal Gear timeline | Metal Gear timeline compared to reality 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid"
Categories: Cleanup from June 2006 | 1998 computer and video games | 1999 computer and video games | 2000 computer and video games | Metal Gear games | PlayStation games | Windows games | Comics based on computer and video games

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
Sony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.Sony Corporation  
Type Public (TYO: 6758 ; NYSE: SNE) 
Founded May 7, 1946 (adopted current name in 1958) 
Location Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan 
Key people Howard Stringer: Chairman and CEO;
Ryoji Chubachi: President and Electronics CEO 
Industry Consumer electronics, electronics, financial services & media 
Products Consumers electronics (audio visual & gaming)
Computer hardware
Financial services
Film, television & music
Semiconductors
others 
Revenue  $64.28 billion USD (2006)[1] 
Operating income $1.635 billion [citation needed] 
Net income $1.057 billion [citation needed] 
Employees 158,500 (March 31, 2006) 
Subsidiaries Sony BMG
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Ericsson
Sony Pictures Entertainment
AIWA
others 
Website www.sony.net 
Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī Kabushiki-gaisha?) is one of the world's largest media conglomerates founded in Tokyo, Japan. One of its divisions Sony Electronics is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

Sony Corporation is the parent company of the Sony Group and is engaged in business through its six operating segments - electronics, music, games, pictures, financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the second-largest record company in the world.

Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $67 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005[citation needed], and it employs 151,400 people worldwide.[citation needed] Sony's consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 were $18.4 billion. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
2 Company Name 
3 Sony Electronics' notable products and technologies 
3.1 1950s 
3.2 1960s 
3.3 1970s 
3.4 1980s 
3.5 1990s 
3.6 2000s 
3.7 Future 
4 Management 
4.1 Mergers & Acquisitions 
4.2 Corporate governance 
5 Proprietary formats 
6 Controversies 
6.1 Fictitious movie reviewer 
6.2 Digital rights management 
6.3 Advertisements 
6.4 Legal 
6.5 Consumer criticism 
7 Trivia 
8 See also 
9 References 
10 External links 



[edit]
History
In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo.[citation needed] The next year he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.[citation needed], which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.[citation needed]

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.[citation needed] He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka looked to apply it to communications. While the American companies Regency and Texas Instruments built transistor radios first, it was Ibuka's company that made the first commercially successful transistor radios.

In August 1955, Sony produced its first coat-pocket sized transistor radio they registered as the TR-55 model.[citation needed] In 1956, Sony reportedly manufactured about 40,000 of its Model TR-72 box-like portable transistor radios and exported the model to North America, the Netherlands and Germany.

That same year they made the TR-6, a coat pocket radio which was used by the company to create its "SONY boy" advertising character.[citation needed] The following year, 1957, Sony came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 x 71 x 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success. [citation needed]

University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had began buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1958. However, this huge growth in portable transistor radio sales that saw Sony rise to be the dominant player in the consumer electronics field [2] was not because of the consumers who had bought the earlier generation of tube radio consoles, but was driven by a distinctly new American phenomenon at the time called Rock and Roll.

[edit]
Company Name
When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK.[citation needed] The primary reason they did not, is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.[citation needed]

The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, the English word "sunny", and from the word Sonny-boys which is Japanese slang for "whiz kids". However "Sonny" was thought to sound too much like the Japanese saying soh-nee which means "business goes bad", Akio Morita pushed for a word that does not exist in any language so that they could claim the word "Sony" as their own (which paid off when they sued a candy producer who also used the name who claimed that "Sony" was just an existing word in some language).[citation needed]

At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters instead of Chinese characters to spell its name. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name.[citation needed] They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.[citation needed]

As a result of this persistence, Sony has now developed into a leading international manufacturer producing a variety of products throughout the electronics market, music and gaming industries, and many more besides.

[edit]
Sony Electronics' notable products and technologies
See also: List of Sony Trademarks 
A * denotes a proprietary format. Question marks indicate products no longer sold as of 2006 with an unknown year of withdrawal.

[edit]
1950s

A 1969 Sony TC-630 reel-to-reel recorderReel-to-reel tape recorders (1950-??) 
Transistor radios (1955-) 
[edit]
1960s
Portapak (1967-) 
Trinitron (196 
[edit]
1970s
U-matic (1971-1983) 
Betamax* (1975-1988) 
Elcaset (1976-1980) 
STR Series of AV receivers (197X-present) 
Walkman (1979-) 
ICF-7600 Series of Shortwave Radios (1979-) 
[edit]
1980s

MiniDisc Walkman 
NEWS workstationMavica (1981-??) 
Betacam* (1982-) 
Compact Disc (1982-) 
Watchman (1982-) 
3.5" diskette (1983-) 
Discman (1984-) 
Handycam (1985-) 
Video8 (1985-??) 
ICF-2010 Longwave/AM/Shortwave/FM/Air Band Receiver (1985-2003) 
NEWS Computer workstations (1987-1996) 
D2 (198 
Hi8 (1989-) 
Video Walkman (1989-) 
[edit]
1990s

PlayStation 
PlayStation 2 
PlayStation PortableNT (1991-??) 
MiniDisc* (1992-) 
PlayStation (later PS one) (1994-2004) 
Magic Link (1994-1997) 
DV (1995-) 
MiniDV (1995-) 
Cyber-shot (1996-) 
Digital8* (1999-) 
FD Trinitron (1996-) 
VAIO (1997-) 
Digital Mavica (1997-) 
Ruvi (1998-1999) 
Memory Stick* (199 
HiFD (1998-2001) 
Super Audio CD (199 
Aibo (1999-2006) 
[edit]
2000s

PlayStation 3Memory Stick PRO (2000-) 
CLI?? (2000-2005) 
ImageStation (2000-) 
PlayStation 2 (2000-) 
MicroMV (2002-) 
SonicStage (2002-) 
HDV (2003-) 
Qualia (2003-2006) 
Blu-ray Disc (2006-) 
PSX (2003-) 
Qrio (2003-) 
Connect (2004-) 
PlayStation Portable (2004-) 
Universal Media Disc (UMD)* (2004-) (2005 UK-) 
Librie (2004-) 
LocationFree Player (2004-) 
Cellular Walkman (2005-) 
PCS-TL30P Desktop Videoconferencing (2005-) 
BRAVIA (2005-) 
[edit]
Future

VAIO brand of computersPlayStation 3 (17th November 2006) 
Sony α Digital SLR Cameras (Summer 2006) 
Question marks indicate products no longer sold as of 2006, but the year of withdrawal is unknown 
Sony is one of the few electronics companies with manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States of America.

[edit]
Management
On March 7, 2005, Sony Corp. announced that Nobuyuki Idei will step down as Chairman and Group CEO and will be replaced by Briton Sir Howard Stringer, current Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the British Howard Stringer will mark the first time that a foreigner will run a major Japanese electronics firm. Sony Corp. also announced on the same date that current president, Kunitake Ando, will step down and be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi. [3]

[edit]
Mergers & Acquisitions
1988 ??? CBS (Columbia) Records Group from CBS. It was renamed "Sony Music Entertainment". 
1989 ??? Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group from Coca Cola for US $3.4 billion. It was subsequently renamed "Sony Pictures Entertainment" in 1991. 
2001 ??? Sony Ericsson a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Ericsson AB, was established in October. 
2002 ??? Aiwa Corporation in October. 
2004 ??? S-LCD Corporation a 51:49(Samsung Electronics: 50% plus 1 share, Sony: 50% minus 1 share) joint venture of Sony Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, was established in April. 
2004 ??? On July 20, 2004, the EU approved a 50-50 merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG. The new company was named Sony BMG Music Entertainment and, as of 2005, holds a 21.5% share in the global music market, behind worldwide leader Universal Music Group, which has a 25.5% share. 
2004 ??? MGM/UA Entertainment Co. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists) was acquired by a Sony-led consortium finalised the deal to purchase the famous film studio for about $5 Billion, including $2bn in debts from Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian. 
2006 ??? Sony NEC Optiarc Inc a 55:45 (Sony 55%, NEC 45%) joint venture of Sony Corporation and NEC Corporation, was established in April. 
2006 ???After acquiring digital Single Lens Reflex (Digital SLR) cameras section from Konica Minolta, Sony adapted the "α mount system" name for the "Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system" which Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc has continuously developed from the age of analog film and it inherits the superb reliability of that system. 
[edit]
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Sony are: Peter Bonfeld, Ryoji Chubachi, Sakie Fukushima, Hirobumi Kawano, Yotaro Kobayashi, Göran Lindahl, Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Akishige Okada, Howard Stringer, Fueo Sumita, and Yoshiaki Yamauchi.[citation needed]

[edit]
Proprietary formats
Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. The most infamous of these was the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed its Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketplace and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs and Sony adopted the format. Since then, Sony has continued to introduce its own versions of storage technologies, with varying success. Examples include -

Video8/Hi8/Digital8 - In 1985, Sony introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Much smaller than the competition's VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market. 
MiniDisc was created by Sony for use in portable music players. They were designed to share the market of Walkman products. Low consumer adoption has seen the product fail outside of the Japanese market. 
Sony also makes heavy use of its Memory Stick flash memory cards for digital cameras and other portable devices; however, other manufacturers are also making use of this technology. 
One successful attempt was the introduction of the 90mm micro floppy diskettes (better known as 3.5inch floppy disks), which Sony had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks and a lot of variations from different companies to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant; 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by more current media formats. 
The DVD format currently being used in households world wide was jointly developed by Philips and Sony to replace CD; the use of a shorter wavelength laser beam sees the higher storage capacity of 4.7-17+GB as opposed to 640-700MB on a single disc. 
Sony attempted, unsuccessfully, to compete with the Iomega Zip drive and Imation SuperDisk with their HiFD. 
In 1993 Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with its newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time. Unlike Dolby Digital, SDDS utilized a method of backup by having mirrored arrays of bits on both sides of the film which acted as a measure of reliability in case the film was partially damaged. Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS. 
Since the introduction of the MiniDisc format, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against more widely-used formats like MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 de facto standard natively, although the software SonicStage provided with them would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats. 
Sony is currently touting its Blu-ray optical disc format, which is likely to compete with Toshiba's HD DVD. As of quarter one of 2006, Blu-Ray has the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal. 
Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF). 
Sony and Philips introduced the high-fidelity audio system SACD in 1999, but it has since been entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of their ubiquitous presence in consumer devices. 
OpenMG, a digital rights management system. 
ARccOS, a copy control system for DVDs. 
Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold 1.8 gigabytes of data, which can include games, movies, music, or a combination thereof. As of July 2006, UMD is believed to be a nearly-abandoned movie format. 
MpegMovieVX (Also known as MPEG-VX, EX and HQX) is the video format used in Sony Cybershot digital still cameras. It's a proprietary implementation of the MPEG1 standard, which Sony first used in their DSC-F55 model in 1999 and has been using ever since. The format is undocumented and has only recently been reverse engineered by the company Makayama, who use it in their consumer software Digital Camera Media Studio [4]. 
[edit]
Controversies
[edit]
Fictitious movie reviewer
In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David Manning, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, which generally received poor reviews amongst real critics. [5]

[edit]
Digital rights management
Main article: 2005 Sony CD copy protection scandal
In October 2005, it was revealed by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals that Sony BMG Music Entertainment's music CDs had installed a rootkit on the user's computer as a DRM measure (called Extended Copy Protection by its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was extremely difficult to detect or to remove. This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users, as well as a small drain on computer system resources. Users may even damage their computer while trying to uninstall it, a fact that drew further criticism of Sony's actions. SonyBMG is facing several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.[citation needed]

[edit]
Advertisements
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the PlayStation (PS) gaming console in Italy, Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera and wearing on his head a crown made of button symbols (Triangle, O, X, Square). At the bottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion". This outraged the Vatican as well as many local Catholic believers, prompting comments such as "Sony went too far" and "Vatican excommunicates Sony". After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued.
[citation needed]

Sony also admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti artists to spraypaint advertisements for their Playstation Portable game system in seven major US cities including New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and San Francisco, California.[citation needed] The mayor of Philadelphia has filed a cease and desist order and may file a criminal complaint. According to Sony, they are paying businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls. [6] As of early January 2006, Sony has no plans to keep or withdraw them.

In July 2006, Sony released a Dutch advertising campaign featuring a white model dressed entirely in white and a black model garbed in black. The first ad featured the white model clutching the face of the black model. The words "White is coming" headlined one of the ads. The ad has been viewed as racist by critics. [1] A Sony spokesperson responded that the ad does not have a racist message saying it was only trying to depict the contrast between the black PSP model and the new ceramic white PSP. Other pictures of the ad campaign includes the black model overpowering the white model.[2]

[edit]
Legal
In 2002, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular PlayStation game consoles, was sued by Immersion Corp. of San Jose, California which claimed that Sony's PlayStation "Dual Shock" controllers infringed on Immersion's patents. In 2004, a federal jury agreed with Immersion, awarding the company US$82 million in damages. A U.S. district court judge ruled on the matter in March, 2005 and not only agreed with the federal jury's ruling but also added another US$8.7 million in damages. Washington Post: Pay Judgment Or Game Over, Sony Warned

[edit]
Consumer criticism
Many of Sony's proprietary measures for media including MiniDisk, Betamax tapes, and other media has generated public outcry. Due to JVC's willingness to license the VHS format to other vendours, Sony's Betamax has been thwarted out of consumer production (it is still used for professional editing due to its superior quality) rendering it a marketing flop. A growing number of consumers complain that Sony's electronic products are no longer as durable as in the past [3].

[edit]
Trivia
In the 1990 movie Crazy People, the character played by Dudley Moore and his advertising team show the successful campaign to Sony, the final of the movie shows the TV spot of the company. 
In the popular 1990s British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, Sony is referred to as an American company with actor Nicholas Lyndhurst saying that the initials of SONY stand for "Somewhere Outside New York" (see backronym). 
In a episode of South Park, Tsst, Cartman is playing on his Xbox 360 before he is interrupted by his nanny. You can see for a second his television and video player say the word "Fony", which is a parody of the Sony brand name also appearing in the episode The Return of Chef. 
[edit]
See also
Sony Corporation shareholders and subsidiaries 
Sony CISC 
[edit]
References
^ Google Finance 
^ How Transistor Radios and Web and Newspapers and Hifi Radio Are Alike 
^ http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200503/05-014E/index.html 
^ http://www.makayama.com/digitalcamera.html 
^ "Legal fight over fake film critic", BBC News, March 2, 2004. 
^ Wired News 
Made in Japan by Akio Morita and SONY, Harper Collins (1994) 
SONY: The Private Life by John Nathan, Houghton Mifflin (1999) 
SONY Radio, Sony Transistor Radio 35th Anniversary 1955-1990 - information booklet (1990) 
The Portable Radio in American Life by University of Arizona Professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D. (The University of Arizona Press, 1991). 
The Japan Project: Made in Japan. - a documentary about Sony's early history in the US by Terry Sanders. 
[edit]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
SonySony Corporation: Global Headquarters 
Sony Product Technical Support 
Sony Japan (In Japanese) 
Sony America 
Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe) 
Sony South Korea 
Sony Gaming Technology 
Mobile Gaming Technology 
Snopes article on the name 
Agoraquest: site for Sony product enthusiasts 
The Japan Project: Made in Japan (American Film Foundation) 
SONY DRM XCP: Removal and Explain 
Most recent Sony quarterly conference call transcript 
Playstation Website 
Sony BMG 
Sony Ericsson 
  Major computing companies  v·d·e  

Hardware companies: AMD - Cisco - Dell - Intel - Motorola - Nokia - Samsung - Sony - TI - Toshiba 
Software companies: Amazon - eBay - Google - Novell - Oracle - SAP - Yahoo! 
Hardware/software companies: Apple - EMC - HP - IBM - Microsoft - Sun 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony"
Categories: Articles lacking sources | Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange | Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Companies headquartered in Tokyo | Electronics companies | Electronics companies of Japan | Sony | 1946 establishments

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Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    
Sony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.Sony Corporation  
Type Public (TYO: 6758 ; NYSE: SNE) 
Founded May 7, 1946 (adopted current name in 1958) 
Location Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan 
Key people Howard Stringer: Chairman and CEO;
Ryoji Chubachi: President and Electronics CEO 
Industry Consumer electronics, electronics, financial services & media 
Products Consumers electronics (audio visual & gaming)
Computer hardware
Financial services
Film, television & music
Semiconductors
others 
Revenue  $64.28 billion USD (2006)[1] 
Operating income $1.635 billion [citation needed] 
Net income $1.057 billion [citation needed] 
Employees 158,500 (March 31, 2006) 
Subsidiaries Sony BMG
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Ericsson
Sony Pictures Entertainment
AIWA
others 
Website www.sony.net 
Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī Kabushiki-gaisha?) is one of the world's largest media conglomerates founded in Tokyo, Japan. One of its divisions Sony Electronics is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

Sony Corporation is the parent company of the Sony Group and is engaged in business through its six operating segments - electronics, music, games, pictures, financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the second-largest record company in the world.

Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $67 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005[citation needed], and it employs 151,400 people worldwide.[citation needed] Sony's consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 were $18.4 billion. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

Contents [hide]
1 History 
2 Company Name 
3 Sony Electronics' notable products and technologies 
3.1 1950s 
3.2 1960s 
3.3 1970s 
3.4 1980s 
3.5 1990s 
3.6 2000s 
3.7 Future 
4 Management 
4.1 Mergers & Acquisitions 
4.2 Corporate governance 
5 Proprietary formats 
6 Controversies 
6.1 Fictitious movie reviewer 
6.2 Digital rights management 
6.3 Advertisements 
6.4 Legal 
6.5 Consumer criticism 
7 Trivia 
8 See also 
9 References 
10 External links 



[edit]
History
In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo.[citation needed] The next year he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.[citation needed], which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.[citation needed]

In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor.[citation needed] He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka looked to apply it to communications. While the American companies Regency and Texas Instruments built transistor radios first, it was Ibuka's company that made the first commercially successful transistor radios.

In August 1955, Sony produced its first coat-pocket sized transistor radio they registered as the TR-55 model.[citation needed] In 1956, Sony reportedly manufactured about 40,000 of its Model TR-72 box-like portable transistor radios and exported the model to North America, the Netherlands and Germany.

That same year they made the TR-6, a coat pocket radio which was used by the company to create its "SONY boy" advertising character.[citation needed] The following year, 1957, Sony came out with the TR-63 model, then the smallest (112 x 71 x 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production. It was a worldwide commercial success. [citation needed]

University of Arizona professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D., says, "Sony was not first, but its transistor radio was the most successful. The TR-63 of 1957 cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid 1950s, American teens had began buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1958. However, this huge growth in portable transistor radio sales that saw Sony rise to be the dominant player in the consumer electronics field [2] was not because of the consumers who had bought the earlier generation of tube radio consoles, but was driven by a distinctly new American phenomenon at the time called Rock and Roll.

[edit]
Company Name
When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK.[citation needed] The primary reason they did not, is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TKK.[citation needed]

The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, the English word "sunny", and from the word Sonny-boys which is Japanese slang for "whiz kids". However "Sonny" was thought to sound too much like the Japanese saying soh-nee which means "business goes bad", Akio Morita pushed for a word that does not exist in any language so that they could claim the word "Sony" as their own (which paid off when they sued a candy producer who also used the name who claimed that "Sony" was just an existing word in some language).[citation needed]

At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters instead of Chinese characters to spell its name. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name.[citation needed] They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.[citation needed]

As a result of this persistence, Sony has now developed into a leading international manufacturer producing a variety of products throughout the electronics market, music and gaming industries, and many more besides.

[edit]
Sony Electronics' notable products and technologies
See also: List of Sony Trademarks 
A * denotes a proprietary format. Question marks indicate products no longer sold as of 2006 with an unknown year of withdrawal.

[edit]
1950s

A 1969 Sony TC-630 reel-to-reel recorderReel-to-reel tape recorders (1950-??) 
Transistor radios (1955-) 
[edit]
1960s
Portapak (1967-) 
Trinitron (196 
[edit]
1970s
U-matic (1971-1983) 
Betamax* (1975-1988) 
Elcaset (1976-1980) 
STR Series of AV receivers (197X-present) 
Walkman (1979-) 
ICF-7600 Series of Shortwave Radios (1979-) 
[edit]
1980s

MiniDisc Walkman 
NEWS workstationMavica (1981-??) 
Betacam* (1982-) 
Compact Disc (1982-) 
Watchman (1982-) 
3.5" diskette (1983-) 
Discman (1984-) 
Handycam (1985-) 
Video8 (1985-??) 
ICF-2010 Longwave/AM/Shortwave/FM/Air Band Receiver (1985-2003) 
NEWS Computer workstations (1987-1996) 
D2 (198 
Hi8 (1989-) 
Video Walkman (1989-) 
[edit]
1990s

PlayStation 
PlayStation 2 
PlayStation PortableNT (1991-??) 
MiniDisc* (1992-) 
PlayStation (later PS one) (1994-2004) 
Magic Link (1994-1997) 
DV (1995-) 
MiniDV (1995-) 
Cyber-shot (1996-) 
Digital8* (1999-) 
FD Trinitron (1996-) 
VAIO (1997-) 
Digital Mavica (1997-) 
Ruvi (1998-1999) 
Memory Stick* (199 
HiFD (1998-2001) 
Super Audio CD (199 
Aibo (1999-2006) 
[edit]
2000s

PlayStation 3Memory Stick PRO (2000-) 
CLI?? (2000-2005) 
ImageStation (2000-) 
PlayStation 2 (2000-) 
MicroMV (2002-) 
SonicStage (2002-) 
HDV (2003-) 
Qualia (2003-2006) 
Blu-ray Disc (2006-) 
PSX (2003-) 
Qrio (2003-) 
Connect (2004-) 
PlayStation Portable (2004-) 
Universal Media Disc (UMD)* (2004-) (2005 UK-) 
Librie (2004-) 
LocationFree Player (2004-) 
Cellular Walkman (2005-) 
PCS-TL30P Desktop Videoconferencing (2005-) 
BRAVIA (2005-) 
[edit]
Future

VAIO brand of computersPlayStation 3 (17th November 2006) 
Sony α Digital SLR Cameras (Summer 2006) 
Question marks indicate products no longer sold as of 2006, but the year of withdrawal is unknown 
Sony is one of the few electronics companies with manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States of America.

[edit]
Management
On March 7, 2005, Sony Corp. announced that Nobuyuki Idei will step down as Chairman and Group CEO and will be replaced by Briton Sir Howard Stringer, current Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the British Howard Stringer will mark the first time that a foreigner will run a major Japanese electronics firm. Sony Corp. also announced on the same date that current president, Kunitake Ando, will step down and be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi. [3]

[edit]
Mergers & Acquisitions
1988 ??? CBS (Columbia) Records Group from CBS. It was renamed "Sony Music Entertainment". 
1989 ??? Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group from Coca Cola for US $3.4 billion. It was subsequently renamed "Sony Pictures Entertainment" in 1991. 
2001 ??? Sony Ericsson a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Ericsson AB, was established in October. 
2002 ??? Aiwa Corporation in October. 
2004 ??? S-LCD Corporation a 51:49(Samsung Electronics: 50% plus 1 share, Sony: 50% minus 1 share) joint venture of Sony Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, was established in April. 
2004 ??? On July 20, 2004, the EU approved a 50-50 merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG. The new company was named Sony BMG Music Entertainment and, as of 2005, holds a 21.5% share in the global music market, behind worldwide leader Universal Music Group, which has a 25.5% share. 
2004 ??? MGM/UA Entertainment Co. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists) was acquired by a Sony-led consortium finalised the deal to purchase the famous film studio for about $5 Billion, including $2bn in debts from Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian. 
2006 ??? Sony NEC Optiarc Inc a 55:45 (Sony 55%, NEC 45%) joint venture of Sony Corporation and NEC Corporation, was established in April. 
2006 ???After acquiring digital Single Lens Reflex (Digital SLR) cameras section from Konica Minolta, Sony adapted the "α mount system" name for the "Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system" which Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc has continuously developed from the age of analog film and it inherits the superb reliability of that system. 
[edit]
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Sony are: Peter Bonfeld, Ryoji Chubachi, Sakie Fukushima, Hirobumi Kawano, Yotaro Kobayashi, Göran Lindahl, Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Akishige Okada, Howard Stringer, Fueo Sumita, and Yoshiaki Yamauchi.[citation needed]

[edit]
Proprietary formats
Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. The most infamous of these was the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when Sony marketed its Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC. In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketplace and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs and Sony adopted the format. Since then, Sony has continued to introduce its own versions of storage technologies, with varying success. Examples include -

Video8/Hi8/Digital8 - In 1985, Sony introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Much smaller than the competition's VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market. 
MiniDisc was created by Sony for use in portable music players. They were designed to share the market of Walkman products. Low consumer adoption has seen the product fail outside of the Japanese market. 
Sony also makes heavy use of its Memory Stick flash memory cards for digital cameras and other portable devices; however, other manufacturers are also making use of this technology. 
One successful attempt was the introduction of the 90mm micro floppy diskettes (better known as 3.5inch floppy disks), which Sony had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks and a lot of variations from different companies to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant; 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by more current media formats. 
The DVD format currently being used in households world wide was jointly developed by Philips and Sony to replace CD; the use of a shorter wavelength laser beam sees the higher storage capacity of 4.7-17+GB as opposed to 640-700MB on a single disc. 
Sony attempted, unsuccessfully, to compete with the Iomega Zip drive and Imation SuperDisk with their HiFD. 
In 1993 Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with its newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time. Unlike Dolby Digital, SDDS utilized a method of backup by having mirrored arrays of bits on both sides of the film which acted as a measure of reliability in case the film was partially damaged. Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS. 
Since the introduction of the MiniDisc format, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against more widely-used formats like MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 de facto standard natively, although the software SonicStage provided with them would convert MP3 files into the ATRAC or ATRAC3 formats. 
Sony is currently touting its Blu-ray optical disc format, which is likely to compete with Toshiba's HD DVD. As of quarter one of 2006, Blu-Ray has the backing of every major motion picture studio except Universal. 
Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF). 
Sony and Philips introduced the high-fidelity audio system SACD in 1999, but it has since been entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. At present, neither has gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs are preferred by consumers because of their ubiquitous presence in consumer devices. 
OpenMG, a digital rights management system. 
ARccOS, a copy control system for DVDs. 
Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold 1.8 gigabytes of data, which can include games, movies, music, or a combination thereof. As of July 2006, UMD is believed to be a nearly-abandoned movie format. 
MpegMovieVX (Also known as MPEG-VX, EX and HQX) is the video format used in Sony Cybershot digital still cameras. It's a proprietary implementation of the MPEG1 standard, which Sony first used in their DSC-F55 model in 1999 and has been using ever since. The format is undocumented and has only recently been reverse engineered by the company Makayama, who use it in their consumer software Digital Camera Media Studio [4]. 
[edit]
Controversies
[edit]
Fictitious movie reviewer
In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David Manning, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, which generally received poor reviews amongst real critics. [5]

[edit]
Digital rights management
Main article: 2005 Sony CD copy protection scandal
In October 2005, it was revealed by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals that Sony BMG Music Entertainment's music CDs had installed a rootkit on the user's computer as a DRM measure (called Extended Copy Protection by its creator, British company First 4 Internet), which was extremely difficult to detect or to remove. This constitutes a crime in many countries, and poses a major security risk to affected users, as well as a small drain on computer system resources. Users may even damage their computer while trying to uninstall it, a fact that drew further criticism of Sony's actions. SonyBMG is facing several class action lawsuits regarding this matter.[citation needed]

[edit]
Advertisements
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the PlayStation (PS) gaming console in Italy, Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera and wearing on his head a crown made of button symbols (Triangle, O, X, Square). At the bottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion". This outraged the Vatican as well as many local Catholic believers, prompting comments such as "Sony went too far" and "Vatican excommunicates Sony". After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued.
[citation needed]

Sony also admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti artists to spraypaint advertisements for their Playstation Portable game system in seven major US cities including New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and San Francisco, California.[citation needed] The mayor of Philadelphia has filed a cease and desist order and may file a criminal complaint. According to Sony, they are paying businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls. [6] As of early January 2006, Sony has no plans to keep or withdraw them.

In July 2006, Sony released a Dutch advertising campaign featuring a white model dressed entirely in white and a black model garbed in black. The first ad featured the white model clutching the face of the black model. The words "White is coming" headlined one of the ads. The ad has been viewed as racist by critics. [1] A Sony spokesperson responded that the ad does not have a racist message saying it was only trying to depict the contrast between the black PSP model and the new ceramic white PSP. Other pictures of the ad campaign includes the black model overpowering the white model.[2]

[edit]
Legal
In 2002, Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketer of the popular PlayStation game consoles, was sued by Immersion Corp. of San Jose, California which claimed that Sony's PlayStation "Dual Shock" controllers infringed on Immersion's patents. In 2004, a federal jury agreed with Immersion, awarding the company US$82 million in damages. A U.S. district court judge ruled on the matter in March, 2005 and not only agreed with the federal jury's ruling but also added another US$8.7 million in damages. Washington Post: Pay Judgment Or Game Over, Sony Warned

[edit]
Consumer criticism
Many of Sony's proprietary measures for media including MiniDisk, Betamax tapes, and other media has generated public outcry. Due to JVC's willingness to license the VHS format to other vendours, Sony's Betamax has been thwarted out of consumer production (it is still used for professional editing due to its superior quality) rendering it a marketing flop. A growing number of consumers complain that Sony's electronic products are no longer as durable as in the past [3].

[edit]
Trivia
In the 1990 movie Crazy People, the character played by Dudley Moore and his advertising team show the successful campaign to Sony, the final of the movie shows the TV spot of the company. 
In the popular 1990s British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, Sony is referred to as an American company with actor Nicholas Lyndhurst saying that the initials of SONY stand for "Somewhere Outside New York" (see backronym). 
In a episode of South Park, Tsst, Cartman is playing on his Xbox 360 before he is interrupted by his nanny. You can see for a second his television and video player say the word "Fony", which is a parody of the Sony brand name also appearing in the episode The Return of Chef. 
[edit]
See also
Sony Corporation shareholders and subsidiaries 
Sony CISC 
[edit]
References
^ Google Finance 
^ How Transistor Radios and Web and Newspapers and Hifi Radio Are Alike 
^ http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200503/05-014E/index.html 
^ http://www.makayama.com/digitalcamera.html 
^ "Legal fight over fake film critic", BBC News, March 2, 2004. 
^ Wired News 
Made in Japan by Akio Morita and SONY, Harper Collins (1994) 
SONY: The Private Life by John Nathan, Houghton Mifflin (1999) 
SONY Radio, Sony Transistor Radio 35th Anniversary 1955-1990 - information booklet (1990) 
The Portable Radio in American Life by University of Arizona Professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D. (The University of Arizona Press, 1991). 
The Japan Project: Made in Japan. - a documentary about Sony's early history in the US by Terry Sanders. 
[edit]
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 
SonySony Corporation: Global Headquarters 
Sony Product Technical Support 
Sony Japan (In Japanese) 
Sony America 
Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe) 
Sony South Korea 
Sony Gaming Technology 
Mobile Gaming Technology 
Snopes article on the name 
Agoraquest: site for Sony product enthusiasts 
The Japan Project: Made in Japan (American Film Foundation) 
SONY DRM XCP: Removal and Explain 
Most recent Sony quarterly conference call transcript 
Playstation Website 
Sony BMG 
Sony Ericsson 
  Major computing companies  v·d·e  

Hardware companies: AMD - Cisco - Dell - Intel - Motorola - Nokia - Samsung - Sony - TI - Toshiba 
Software companies: Amazon - eBay - Google - Novell - Oracle - SAP - Yahoo! 
Hardware/software companies: Apple - EMC - HP - IBM - Microsoft - Sun 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony"
Categories: Articles lacking sources | Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange | Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Companies headquartered in Tokyo | Electronics companies | Electronics companies of Japan | Sony | 1946 establishments

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

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Brian Peppers
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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

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Chuck Norris
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Chuck Norris.Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist, action star, and Hollywood actor.

Contents [hide]
1 Biography 
1.1 Beginnings 
1.2 Rise to fame 
1.3 Walker, Texas Ranger 
2 Family 
3 Popular culture 
4 Filmography 
5 References 
6 Notes 
7 External links 



Biography

Beginnings
A native of Ryan, Oklahoma, Norris has two younger brothers, Wieland and Aaron Norris, the latter of whom is a Hollywood producer. Norris was born to an alcoholic father, Ruud Draak, half Irish and half Cherokee, who later changed his name to Norris, and a mother, also half Irish and half Cherokee.[1] Norris is very proud of his Native American heritage, and frequently referred to his origins on his hit show Walker, Texas Ranger. When Norris was ten, his parents divorced[2] and he later relocated to Prairie Village, Kansas and then Torrance, California with his mother and brothers.[3] Norris describes his childhood as downbeat. He was nonathletic, shy, and scholastically mediocre. Other children taunted him about his mixed ethnicity, and Norris daydreamed about beating up his tormentors. Norris mentioned in his autobiography that his father had a very serious problem with drinking and "wasn't there" a lot for him growing up. Norris admitted that he loved his father but did not like him. However, he professed that he only felt pity for the man because "that was just how he was, and he missed so much."

Norris finished high school and soon married his girlfriend, Diane Holechek. In 1958 Norris joined the United States Air Force as a Military Policeman and was sent to Osan Air Base, South Korea. It was in South Korea that Norris acquired the nickname Chuck and began his training in Tang Soo Do (tangsudo), an interest that would lead to black belts in Tang Soo Do, Tae Kwon Do, and Shinto-Ryu Karate, and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; and the founding of the Chun Kuk Do ("Universal Way") form and the education associations United Fighting Arts Federation and "Kick Start," formerly "Kick Drugs Out of America," a middle school and high school based program intended to give at-risk children a focus point in life through the martial arts. When he returned to the United States he continued to act as an MP at March Air Force Base California. Norris was discharged in August of 1962. He worked for the Northrop corporation and opened a chain of karate schools, which the son of Steve McQueen, Chad McQueen attended.[3] On July 1, 2000 he was presented the GOLDEN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD by the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.


Rise to fame

Chuck Norris as a martial artist.Chuck's entrance into tournament karate began on a losing note. He was defeated in his first two tournaments, dropping decisions to Joe Lewis and Allan Steen. However, by 1967, Norris began to demonstrate his greatness and scored victories over the likes of Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Victor Moore, Ron Marchini and Steve Sanders. In early 1968, Chuck suffered the 5th and last loss of his career, losing an upset decision to Louis Delgado. However, on November 24, 1968, Chuck avenged his defeat to Delgado and in the process won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion (non-contact) title, which he held for six consecutive years.[4] In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the fighter of the year award by Black Belt magazine. It was also in 1969 that Norris made his acting debut, in the Dean Martin movie The Wrecking Crew.

In 1970, his younger brother Weiland was killed in Vietnam. Norris later dedicated his Missing in Action films to his brother's memory.

At a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met the soon-to-be famous martial artist Bruce Lee. In 1972, he acted as Bruce Lee's nemesis in the movie Way of the Dragon (also known as 'Return of the Dragon'), and in 1974, McQueen encouraged him to begin acting classes at the MGM Studio. Chuck Norris retired with a karate record of 65-5 and he reversed all of his defeats.

Norris' first starring role was 1977's Breaker! Breaker!, and subsequent films such as The Octagon (1980), An Eye for an Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade proved his increasing box office bankability. In 1984, Norris starred in Missing in Action, the first of a series of POW rescue fantasies produced by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and released under their Cannon Films banner. Also in that year, he was offered the part of the sensei of the Kobra Kai dojo in the movie The Karate Kid, but declined the part. He reportedly did not want to take part in depicting martial artists in an unfavorable light. [5]. However, Norris disputes this story. On a February 9, 2006 episode of The Adam Carolla Show, Norris said that he was never offered the role. Norris noted that he was already playing leading roles by the time The Karate Kid was in production.

Over the next four years, Norris became Cannon's most prominent star, appearing in eight films, including Code of Silence, The Delta Force, and Firewalker, in which he co-starred with Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr.

In 1986, he was involved in the production of the Ruby Spears Cartoon Karate Kommandos


Walker, Texas Ranger

Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas RangerBy the close of the 1980s, Cannon Films had faded from prominence, and Norris' star appeal seemed to go with it. He reprised his Delta Force role for MGM, who had acquired the Cannon library after the latter's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Norris went on to make several more largely ignored films before making a transition to television. In 1993, he began shooting the series Walker, Texas Ranger, which lasted eight years on CBS and continued in heavy syndication on other channels.

On October 16th, 2005, CBS Premiered the Sunday night "Movie of the Week" Walker Texas Ranger: Trial By Fire. The production was a continuation of the series, and not scripted to be a reunion movie. Norris reprised his role as Cordell Walker for the movie. He has stated that future Walker Texas Ranger "Movie of the Week" projects are expected.


Family
In 1963, his first child with Holechek, a son named Mike, was born; a daughter, Dina, was born in 1964; and a second son, Eric, followed in 1965. After 30 years of marriage, Norris and Holechek divorced in 1988. He married again in 1998, this time to former model Gena O'Kelley, and she delivered twins in 2001: Dakota Alan Norris, a boy, and Danilee Kelly Norris, a girl. Norris has always been a very loving family man; it was noted in People that his adult sons still hug and kiss him goodbye. "It's great my boys aren't afraid to show love," Norris said. "Nothing can buy that." Norris's son, Mike, said of his father, "Dad never had a lot of love growing up, but he has given me and my brother all that he should have had in multiples." However, in the same interview Mike said that he still wouldn't want to mess with his dad.


Popular culture
Norris regained popularity as a cult icon during the mid-2000s, especially on the Internet. Among the more high-profile parodies and references are these instances:

Late Night with Conan O'Brien's parent company, NBC, acquired Universal in early 2004, giving O'Brien permission to show footage of Walker, Texas Ranger without paying royalties. O'Brien and his writers subsequently created a new segment in which O'Brien shows short, out of context clips for comedic purposes. The "Walker, Texas Ranger Lever" quickly became one of the most popular segments on Late Night. This segment has been credited as jump-starting the Norris craze and leading to enough interest to produce a Walker, Texas Ranger TV movie. 
Norris is the object of an Internet phenomenon known as Chuck Norris Facts documenting and proclaiming fictional, often heroic feats and characteristics, which began to circulate in late 2005. Norris has written his own response to the parody on his website, stating that he does not feel offended by them, and finds some of them funny. [1]. He recently read 10 of them on a The Best Damn Sports Show, Period, and said that his favorite one is "They once tried to carve Chuck Norris's face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn't hard enough for his beard"[2]. 
Adult Swim, a late night programming block on Cartoon Network, currently airs Chuck Norris' Karate Kommandos in response to Norris's poppularity. 
Norris was parodied in a Saturday Night Live music video spoof entitled "The Young Chuck Norris", aired January 21, 2006. [3] 
Chuck Norris sponsors the infomercial, Total Gym Fitness, which usually airs in the late night or early morning hours. 
During the March 10, 2006 show of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, numerous references were made to Norris on his birthday, including all of the cut-out heads on the set, which are usually of current sports stars, being replaced with Chuck Norris heads. Also, several humorous comments in reference to Chuck Norris were made by co-host, Tony Kornheiser, in a similar tone to that featured on the Chuck Norris Facts website. 
Norris served as a guest referee at the World Wrestling Federation's Survivor Series 1994 for the casket match between The Undertaker and the late Yokozuna. A similar match had taken place at Royal Rumble 1994 where ten other wrestlers beat down The Undertaker. Norris was called upon to ensure a similar situation didn't take place. As guest referee, he kicked then-WWF star Double J square in the stomach. 
Norris appeared as himself on an episode of Yes, Dear, where he shadows one of the main characters (Jimmy) to understand the life of a security guard. 
He recently had a cameo role in the movie Dodgeball as a judge at a dodgeball tournament. 
Norris appeared in the internet meme The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. 
Chuck Norris also starred in his own Atari 2600 videogame, Chuck Norris Superkicks 
Chuck Norris also appears in Maddox (real name George Ouzounian)'s book: Alphabet of Manliness under the letter N. 
In the animated children's show Danny Phantom, there is a ghost named Walker who is a cop that protects the "ghost zone". It's believed that this is a reference to Walker, Texas Ranger. It may also refer to the Walker family, from Lee Falk's original The Phantom series. 
Chuck Norris was a reserve police officer for the Terrell, Texas, Police Department. 
The popular anime forum Gaia online modeled an item description after a Chuck Norris joke, called the "Chyaku Norisu Ninja scarf" 

Filmography

Chuck Norris in "Braddock: Missing in Action III".The Wrecking Crew (1969) 
Way of the Dragon (1972) 
The Student Teachers (1973) 
Slaughter in San Francisco (1974) 
The Warrior Within (1976) (documentary) 
Bruce Lee, the Legend (1977) (documentary) 
Breaker! Breaker! (1977) 
Good Guys Wear Black (1978) 
A Force of One (1979) 
The Octagon (1980) 
An Eye for an Eye (1981) 
Silent Rage (1982) 
Forced Vengeance (1982) 
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) 
Missing in Action (1984) 
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) 
Code of Silence (1985) 
Invasion U.S.A. (1985) 
The Delta Force (1986) 
The Karate Kommandos (1986), animated children's show, with Chuck Norris himself appearing to reveal the episode and the moral contained in the episode. 
Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988) 
Hero and the Terror (1988) 
The Hitman (1991) 
Sidekicks (1992) 
Hellbound (1994) 
Top Dog (1995) 
Forest Warrior (1996) 
Bells of Innocence (2003) 
The Presidents Man (2003) 
Dodgeball (2004) 
The Contender (2005) 
The Cutter (2005) 

References
The Secret Power Within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems, Zen Buddhism and martial arts. Little, Brown and Company (1996). ISBN 0316583502. 
Against All Odds: My Story, an autobiography. Broadman & Holman Publishers (2004). ISBN 0805431616. 
The Justice Riders, Wild West novels. Broadman & Holman Publishers (2006). ISBN 0805440321. 

Notes
^ "At Dinner with: Chuck Norris", The New York Times, May 12, 1993 
^ "Chuck Norris ??? Strong, Silent, Popular," The New York Times, September 1, 1985 
^ a b "At Dinner with: Chuck Norris," The New York Times, May 12, 1993 
^ "Chuck Norris ??? Strong, Silent, Popular", The New York Times, September 1, 1985 
^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087538/trivia 

External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 
Chuck NorrisOfficial web site 
Chuck Norris at the Internet Movie Database 
Official Chun Kuk Do Website 
Chuck Norris Facts 
Chuck Norris on facts - by Chuck Norris himself as he appears on The Best Damn Sports Show Period (video) 
Another source of Chuck Norris Info 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris"
Categories: Semi-protected | 1940 births | American film actors | American karateka | American television actors | Born-again Christians | Cherokee people | Christian actors | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Irish-American actors | People from Oklahoma | Living people | Multiracial entertainers | United States Air Force airmen

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This page was last modified 06:36, 21 July 2006. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) 
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Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

I told you to stop it you little Trolliban terrorist.


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

Go away kid you're bothering me!


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## DOMS (Jul 21, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!



Dumb shit.


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## maniclion (Jul 21, 2006)

Stop spamming the forums sphincter boy!


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## kenwood (Jul 21, 2006)




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## hardasnails1973 (Jul 21, 2006)

oh shit he learned how to cut and paste what next LOL


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## KEFE (Jul 21, 2006)

hardasnails1973 said:
			
		

> oh shit he learned how to cut and paste what next LOL



Excuse me miss, that would be copy and paste.


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## Andy_Massaro (Jul 21, 2006)

wow dude youre a douchebag


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## myCATpowerlifts (Jul 21, 2006)

Min0 please make a .gif using his new pics...


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## aceshigh (Jul 22, 2006)

white trash man he probably has grandkids at 12


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## SuperFlex (Jul 22, 2006)

KEFE said:
			
		

> Here are the other ones.


 

 look at the belts on the wall...  That shit is legendary! Sometimes I wish I was 12 again. Naaaa.....


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## Andy_Massaro (Jul 22, 2006)

can i ask why you have a mask on?


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