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Bill
Pearl is a creative and dedicated bodybuilding
superstar who has learned how to create a bit
more from an already-great physique. At nearly
72 years of age (at the time of this interview),
he continues to live the bodybuilding and fitness
lifestyle. Bill merits respect for his personal
way of life, not only for his physical excellence,
but for his fine mind and well-rounded personality
as well.
He
is universally admired by those who know him and
is genuinely modest and sincere in every way.
His solid rugged-looking physique can be appreciated
by the average man and woman on the street, and
that's a rarity today. He is definitely a legend
and an inspiration to all who admire a powerful
muscular physique. Bodybuilders the world over
would do well to emulate Bill Pearl.
The
following super-nutrition strategies are compiled
from group seminars that he conducted in Virginia
Beach, Virginia, and Atlanta Georgia, back in
the 1980s.
Q. When you're in training for a contest such
as your last one in 1971, or, say, for an exhibition,
what does your diet consist of?
BP.
My morning and afternoon meals will almost be
all eggs and some fresh fruit and raw vegetables.
Most of the fat that is found in an egg is in
the yolk, so my wife will scramble 6 or 7 eggs
in a Teflon pan and, while doing it, would take
out 4 of the 7 yolks. So, to keep the fat content
down, we will keep backing off the yolks.
For
my evening meal I will have some type of meat
substitute and fresh vegetables and maybe some
cooked vegetables and some type of fruit like
cantaloupe, watermelon, or honeydew.
Q. So by backing off the yolks in eggs, you didn't
have any problems with your cholesterol, did you?
BP.
No! I found out, and the reason I became a lacto-ovo-vegetarian,
where Judy [wife] and I eat all plant foods plus
dairy products and eggs, because my cholesterol
levels had gotten so high, it ran through my veins
just about like syrup. Back about 25 years ago,
when I was 35 years old, I used to work for North
American Rockwell in the aerospace program. It
was my job as a consultant to keep the astronauts
in good shape for their upcoming flights into
space. The company used to hold me up as an example.
You know, everybody's got to look like ol' Pearl.
I had
a blood test done one day, and the company doctor
called me into his office and said, "Bill,
do you have a family doctor?" I said "Yes,
I have a family doctor," and he said, "I
strongly suggest you see this man and he puts
you in the hospital." I said "You've
got to be kidding, doc," and he said, "No,
Bill, if you were my patient, I'd actually put
you in the hospital." He said that my uric
acid, blood pressure, and triglycerides were so
high that I was a prime candidate for a heart
attack! So I went to my family doctor, who is
a Seventh Day Adventist and whom I had a tremendous
amount of respect for. He started watching my
diet and advised me to get the red meat out of
it. I kept backing off and backing off 'til I
finally got away from red meat all together. Liver
and milk were also taken out of my diet, and that's
how I became a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. I've been
eating this way now for the past 25 years, and
I never deviate from this; but I am not here to
preach this stuff, and I am not trying to change
everybody's philosophy or eating habits. It's
just what seems to work best for me."
Q. Bill, you say you don't eat red meats. Do you
think you could've won a Mr. Universe contest
if you didn't eat red meats?"
BP.
Well, the last two Universe contests I won were
done Without eating red meat. Think of it this
way. If you feel the secret to bodybuilding is
how much red meat you can consume every day, don't
you think the smart thing to do is put down 2
or 3 pounds of that stuff on a regular basis?
You'd be bigger than anyone walking the streets.
So meat is no more than another substance to put
in your body, and what little bit of protein and
carbohydrates and minerals that are there, your
body will extract it and use it like any other
food. Meat is definitely not the secret to bodybuilding.
Q. Did you ever have problems with your shoulder,
elbow, and knee joints when you ate red meats?
BP.
Yes, I did, and that is another reason I got off
the red meats and became a lacto-ovo-vegetarian.
When I changed my diet over, I had less and less
joint problems. All the poisons found in your
system such as uric acid...is going to be stored
in the joints of the body if it can't be expelled
through the kidneys or liver. I think you'll have
less and less joint problems the longer you are
off red meats, especially gland meats. I am really
against organ meats such as liver. I think it
is one of the worst foods you can consume, in
my opinion.
Q. Can you tell us some of your secrets you use
for getting rid of excess body fat just before
a contest or exhibition? Do you use different
fat burners?
BP.
I don't take fat burners, because the fat burners
that are selling on the market today have nothing
to do with burning adipose tissue. The fat burners
only burn the fat that is in the blood that causes
arteriosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] and
has nothing to do with burning adipose tissue.
There is no such animal. You can't take a pill
that's going to burn body fat unless it's some
type of thyroid. The only health food products
I take are vitamin C, at 1000 milligrams per day,
which is spread out during the day because it
is a water-based vitamin, and if you took it all
in the morning, by the time you went to the bathroom,
the rest of it would go down the toilet. I also
take a good multi-B complex vitamin and some E.
I might take a protein food supplement if I'm
on the road and not getting enough protein, and
when I do, I eliminate as much animal fat and
as much vegetable fat from my diet as I possibly
can. Things like margarine, salad dressings. I
back off all I can from refined sugars, no canned
foods, no ketchup, no pastries. I eat a lot of
complex carbohydrates, which comes from fresh
fruits and vegetables, raw nuts, whole grains,
and very small amounts of low-fat dairy products,
and that's it.
Q. You just mentioned that you take a good protein
food supplement. What is the best type of protein
a person can take, and how many grams should be
taken per pound of a person's muscle bodyweight?
BP.
The best type of protein a person can ingest is
a milk-and-egg protein concentrate. The protein
efficiency ratio [PER] in milk and eggs is the
highest you can possibly get other than eggs itself,
and the protein efficiency is just about like
mother's milk, so it's just about the best concentrate
you can consume.
I don't
mean that you should go out and drink a gallon
of milk and eat a ton of eggs. The manufactures
of milk and egg protein concentrates have already
extracted the protein and the amino acids from
the milk and mixed it with the protein powder
from eggs and so on. They came up with a real
good product where there is zero fat in it almost
all together.
Regarding
your question about the grams of protein per pound
of muscle bodyweight. I have done studies on this,
and I've read more on protein than you can shake
a stick at. If you're consuming 1/2 gram of protein
per pound of muscle bodyweight regardless of how
hard you train, that's all you need for repair
and muscle growth; that's it. Any more than that
will either be stored as fat or you can consume
it as fuel. So if a person is taking 400 or 500
grams of protein a day, they're wasting their
money and would be better off eating Hershey's
candy bars, because they can be digested quicker.
Q. The evening before a physique contest, do you
think it is wise to use any kind of diuretic,
natural or otherwise?
BP.
I think if a bodybuilder is carrying a lot of
water weight and so on and wanted to back off
the water weight, some form of natural diuretic
would probably be all right. But if you're not
careful and you take too much, you're going to
defeat yourself by knocking your balance of electrolytes
off so badly that you will cramp up and lose muscle
size as well. Be sure to take a good, natural
mineral substance.
Q. What are your thoughts about anabolic steroids?
BP.
I don't think a person who takes anabolic steroids
is an immoral person. I think it's a matter of
choice. If you want to subject your body to that
type of abuse, then be my guest. I think any time
that you're putting some foreign substance in
your body, you're going to have to pay the price.
Q. Have any of the top physique men you know to
have taken anabolic steroids had any serious side
effects?
BP.
Yes! There was a former Mr. America who passed
away from the effects of anabolic steroid use.
There have been numerous other physique stars
who have quit the sport of bodybuilding because
of it. I think if anabolic steroids were taken
under a doctor's supervision and taken as they
were prescribed, then there may be a place in
the sport for the drug itself. I'm opposed to
the abuse of it. I was in Portland, Oregon, a
few years ago on a lecture tour, and I was shocked
to learn that many of the younger physique contestants
were taking more steroids for the amateur Mr.
Oregon than many of the top physique stars take
prior to entering a national show. The sad fact
was that 99% of these younger guys had absolutely
no potential in the sport at all.
Q. Have you ever taken steroids?
BP.
Yes, I have taken steroids. I would not take them
in this stage of my life, but I got caught up
in this thing like everybody else did.
Q. Did you ever take them for a contest, or have
you taken them all along?
BP.
Oh, no! I've only taken them for a short period
of time back in 1967, for a 6-8 week period under
a doctor's supervision like I'm telling you. I
got off of it after that, and I have never touched
them since, because I could see that it was just
something that didn't make me feel good about
myself, and I said I'll get out of the sport and
I'll quit training all together if that's what
I've got to subject myself to, to stay in it.
Q. If a bodybuilder wants to stay in the sport
and train naturally, can you give them some ways
to improve their testosterone levels more naturally?
BP.
If a person could do this and he could become
more manly, his chance for muscular growth in
the sport of bodybuilding would be a great deal
better. I think the more masculine you are, the
more massive you can become, can be through diet
more than anything else.
Q. Will the numerous supplements like glandulars
and all the others be worth a try for increasing
testosterone levels more naturally?
BP.
If you took all the glandular tablets by the bottle
full or any of the other numerous supplements,
it wouldn't do the job for you. It might help
a teeny bit, but you have to realize that, if
these supplements did a great deal for you, they'd
be under a prescription like anabolic steroids
and have to be bought through the FDA.
Q. You mentioned earlier some of the health food
products you take, and it doesn't seem like a
lot when comparing it to the megadosages that
many bodybuilders take from day to day. What gives?
BP.
Regarding the issue on health food products, I
make my living selling health foods. Believe me,
that's how I make my living. I have 69 or so products
that I sell, and any time I see, let's say, a
vitamin 1000% higher than the RDA or even 500%
higher than that, and down the line. If a person
asks me about such a product and its worth, I
will tell them they are just wasting 99% of their
money. Your body is so used to taking such a small
amount of vitamins and minerals out of your foods
and if you had a proper diet which included whole
good, fertile eggs, tremendous amounts of fresh
fruits and vegetables, baked potatoes and brown
rice and other high-fiber types of foods, in many
cases you might not need extra vitamins and minerals
at all.
When
you commence to take vitamin and mineral supplements
500 to 1000 percent over the RDA, do you realize
that your body stops even digesting them from
your foods whatsoever? It doesn't have to. Then,
if you quit the vitamin and mineral regimen for
some reason, you get tired, sick, feel lousy.
Why not? Your body has totally shut off its capability
of processing the vitamins and minerals from your
foods for a period of time. If you smoke heavy
and need more vitamin C or are under heavy stress,
then more B-6 are good reasons why you should
take more, but not a thousand times more than
your daily requirements. Don't get caught up in
the high megadosage products.
Q. You just mentioned that, if a person had a
proper diet, vitamin and mineral supplements might
not even be needed. How many calories a day would
a person have to eat to be sure of getting the
right amount of vitamins and minerals?
BP.
Allowing for the loss of nutrients that occurs
during storage, processing, or food preparation,
in their raw state, most men can't get by on less
than 2200 calories, and women need 1500 calories
just to get the vitamins and mineral nutrition
they need from day to day. That's why those 1000
calorie diets don't work. The best way to go is
to increase your daily activity so it burns more
calories, and that way you can eat more of the
vitamin and mineral packed foods.
Q. What about eating loads of brown rice?
BP.
The amazing thing about brown rice is that you
could have it at every meal and actually lose
weight. You can have 10 bowls of rice, because
it is so high in fiber and so difficult for your
body to break down, it takes more calories for
digestion than is found in the rice itself.
Q. Many of the top bodybuilders, aside from you
and a few others who eat optimally, put many things
in their mouths that seem counterproductive to
long-term health, but they look great and will
even tell you that they feel like a million bucks
most of the time. Are they being totally honest
with us?
BP.
To show you how the body works, I use the following
example all the time. If you were to go to a doctor
and were going to get an immunity for polio, the
doctor would take a small amount of polio vaccine
and put it on a sugar cube. You ingest it, and
he will tell you to come back in 7 years and get
another dose. So, for the next 7 years, you are
safe. No more polio. Use this as an example of
how long it took your body to rid itself of just
one small drop of the polio vaccine. It took your
body 7 years! So, if you are loading up on anabolic
steroids, you're loading up on uppers and downers,
you're loading up on Coca Cola, you're loading
up on white flour and sugar and so on, all the
toxins from these things have to be processed
in the same way, and you still train with weights.
How in your right mind can you think you are living
a happy and healthy life? It has to be a whole
process or it won't work. I had a guy walk into
my gym one time. He was about 54 or 55 years of
age. I said, "Yow are you doing?" and
he said, "Bill, I'm doing just fine. I just
got a haircut and I'm going to take my wife out
tonight. I have never felt better in my life."
The guy then walked two steps over to get his
workout card and dropped dead of a heart attack,
BAM, just like that! I have 5 medical doctors
working out in the gym, and we all pumped on this
guy 'til our eyes popped out. What does this say?
It means that health is a state of mind. He thought
in his mind he was healthy. The guy was so sick,
two seconds later he was dead.
The
amazing part which I'll never forget on this deal
-- when the guy dropped, I called the coroner.
They said, don't touch him, leave him where he
is, we'll come out and get him. He's laying right
by the workout card rack. I go to the massage
room and get a sheet and throw it over the dude,
see. I'll bet you a hundred people came into the
gym, walked over and got their workout cards,
and stepped over that guy. There was not one person
who asked me, "Hey, Bill, what's under that
sheet?" They just didn't want to know. That's
about all the questions I have time to answer.
Thanks a lot, everybody.
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*Visit:
http://www.billpearl.com
Dennis B. Weis is a Ketchikan, Alaska based power-bodybuilder.
He is the co-author of 3 critically acclaimed
books; Mass!, Raw Muscle and Anabolic Muscle Mass
(visit: www.amazon.com to read about it). He is
also a frequent hard-hitting uncompromising freelance
writer for many of the mainstream bodybuilding
and fitness magazines published worldwide.
Contact
Information:
Email: yukonherc@kpunet.net
Website: http://www.dennisbweis.com
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