The Making of a Guru
By Chris Aceto
Nearly every show I have atten
ded over the past two years, I have run into so many brothers of “bro-science” or fellow “gurus”… from gym rats to college educated biology majors whose passion is to prep bodybuilders for competition.
I admit, I am no scientist and I can't even recall basic chemistry from college, so I naturally fit nicely into the “bro-science” category – a name meant to discredit would-be bodybuilding prep coaches and self-proclaimed experts. Instead of shunning it, I embrace it because helping people prepare for a contest has as much to do with common sense as it does with science.
Here are the paraphrased Rules I have pasted next to my computer monitor and I actually read them fairly often. They are meant to keep me on my toes and since I know I will be meeting even more fellow gurus in the coming year, I figured we can post my list up on Rx Muscle for fellow scientists to read and absorb.
1) I DONT KNOW IT ALL. The minute a guru thinks he knows it all, run from him! It's impossible to know a quarter of everything, let alone everything. The minute your guru has decided he is very bright, let alone brilliant, is the day he rigidly enforces what he thinks is best for your body rather than what your body really needs.
2) SEE ONE! I am so afraid of walking down the “I am the greatest” path that it’s important to reflect back on #1. I can tell you first hand, anytime I approach “Wow, Chris, you are pretty damn good,” is the minute things fall apart. It’s painful to be humbled. You always have to be learning and on your toes. My favorite response to bodybuilders I work with is “I don’t know.” Which really means (beside the fact that I DON’T know) I am still trying to learn and figure it all out. If any guru out there has all the answers, please e-mail them to me! :)
3) THE PAST IS THE PAST. I re
member 25 years ago opening up a retirement account and the stockbroker telling me about some mutual fund that had returned 10% a year annually. When I was ready to fork over some money he said, “The past performance of this fund does not reflect future expectations.” It's the broker's way of saying you may lose money in the future. What's it have to do with bodybuilding? A diet plan or contest approach that worked great for a couple years running may not continue to work this year. Therefore, I keep that in mind and try to remain flexible. You should too.
4) SOMETIMES YOU NEED A NUCLEAR OPTION. Most of the contest plans I use incorporate common sense. Calories go down, carbs go down, dietary fat goes down and cardio goes up. Not too much science there. But there comes a time on occasion where common sense fails, science seems to fail (a person can’t get cut even doing everything “right”), so you have to resort to the nuclear option which is extremely low carbs and fat and lots of cardio. What I have found is that in people who are really in need of the nuclear option, shockingly, they end up holding size. However, if you choose to go nuclear when you really don't have too, typically the bodybuilder falls apart, loses a lot of muscle, and looks soft and small. Reserve Nuclear options for truly dire scenarios.
5) Burn FAT! Seems ridiculously simple and I only recently added this to my list. Sitting next to Dave Palumbo at a recent show where no one really looked super, Dave was typing away the play by play when I commented, “Wow, no one really looks amazing.” Without skipping a beat nor taking his eyes off the computer screen, he commented “You got to burn the fat.” Diuretics and carb loading won’t really help unless you master this one. Burn the fat!
6) Don't Over-train. A lot of bodybuilders think they need to re-feed and boost their calories when I feel, in many cases, they are just burnt from training too much and doing too much cardio. Essentially they are non-stop stimulating the body, hoping it will respond while the fact is probably that their body has moved into a “shut down” state where nothing will happen unless they get sufficient rest. Here is where I try to encourage the bodybuilder to take an extra day off from training. I typically will have them come back the next few training days and cut down on the volume. Usually that's a better approach than eating more.
7) DONT LISTEN TO OTHERS. If you are a guru you have to perfect your craft. Everyone has a different and somewhat novel approach so if you jump around and try to incorporate too many newer ideas into someone’s 
prep, I bet you will end up with an unhappy competitor. There really is no single “best way” to prep for a show. The guru's job is to keep his focus. Once you lose sight of your own plan, your clients will suffer.
8) WAIT! Another way of saying “be patient.” It takes time to change the body, and changes the guru may make with diet or cardio may take a few days, sometimes up to ten days, to really make a strong visible impact on the body. As a guru, you need to exercise patience and sit back and wait to see if what you are doing makes a visual impact on the body.
9) DONT SWING FOR HOME RUNS. Another of my favorite sayings. One of the biggest mistakes a guru can make is trying to smash the ball out of the park – to use a baseball metaphor – only to end up striking out. I like to tell people I work with, “We are swinging for a solid hit, maybe even a double” which means shows can be won with a strong showing while the competition may fashion themselves a bodybuilding version of Barry Bonds only to crash and burn, hoping to come in “crazy shredded and full as a house.” Very hard and fairly full often translates into a winning look, provided a competitor’s shape and balance is good and a couple other folks flub up along the way.
Chris Aceto learned to be a bro scientist while under the watchful eye of Bob Gruskin, a real scientist. Check his books out at www.amazon.com.
