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BI Blog
By: Sandy & Roger Riedinger Beverly International Nutrition Jeff Everson writes in Planet Muscle (March/April, 2010)... I went into my garage gym the other night and arbitrarily grabbed one of my over-2000 some muscle magazines on the upper shelves. The issue I grabbed was from 1987. As I paged through it, rather amazingly, all the supplement ads (23 years ago), were different, all except one product advertisement that still exists today! In fact, the name of the product is still the same, a fact that is sort of unheard of. It was Beverly Muscle Provider - absolutely no doubt the single best multiple whey protein supplement in the world then (and most likely now). Having first used Beverly proteins myself in 1972, 10 years before I was voted the #1 strength coach of the BIG 10 (that in 1982) and also in '82, having put my future wife, Cory Kneuer, on Beverly, (and of course, Cory went on to be undefeated as a pro bodybuilder with 6 Ms. Olympia wins) well, I should not have been surprised that Beverly was #1 then, and is #1 in protein today. Jeff went on to tell the story of Beverly International as he knew it. In this issue I'm going to take you behind the scenes and tell you how Roger and I got involved with BI. Next issue Roger will fill in more details. We met in the gym that Roger owned. Yes, he was selling BI even then. (I was 21, Roger was 36), we dated for 3 years; trained together, competed together, and got married. The next year our daughter Jaye was born. We were broke. Roger and I both worked 2-3 jobs to try to get our heads above water and both attended college (I was getting my degree in Corporate Fitness, while Roger was working on post master's stuff). Roger and I are two different people but we compliment each other. Age was never an obstacle. I am fast and furious, Roger is slow and meticulous. To get anything we wanted in life, we both believed that we needed to help other people achieve their goals. So, using our talents, experience, and education, we decided to take Jim Heflin up on his offer and start a state wide BI distributorship. But first, I had to sell my Jetta, so that we could have the funds to secure the BI distribution. We set our BI business up in the basement of our 750 sq ft starter home. We had proteins stacked everywhere, in our laundry room, and I hate to admit it, all along and up and down one wall of Jaye's bed room. I worked the BI business from 1:30-5:00 each afternoon. I worked as a dental assistant from 9-1, and then taught fitness classes in the evening. We performed one-on-one diet consultations every spare minute. Roger would often see clients as late as 11:00 pm during the week. Weekends were filled with appointments. Our doors were open to all who desired to change their physique and do well in a contest! We dropped every cent we took in back into the business pot. Since we were working 3 jobs each, around the clock, we could pay the bills and get by without taking salaries from our Beverly business. Our house always smelled of liver pills and protein powder. We kept up with this same plan for ten years, and then the big news came. We bought the entire business from the Heflin's. We do not like to owe money; we did not borrow (we could not, we went to the bank and they basically said, "NO") to buy the business. We kept putting money back into the business until our bank account finally crept up out of the red 6 months into our first year of ownership. It was an up hill climb. We set goals each year; we checked them off as we achieved them. We finally moved to a larger location, bigger house, and built a building on our property for the business. We read and listened to self improvement programs, along with books on how to create, run and operate a successful business. We never do anything half way. When we put our hearts into something, it must be all we can make it in the end or we are not satisfied. That goes for our own personal development, our operations, educational material, employee output, etc. We are just, normal everyday people. Our main goal - to help others - has been the guiding light thru this business venture. I feel we empathize with others because we know what it is like to have little or no money and what it feels like to achieve a goal that is worthy. We have lived the American Dream. Integrity is what we live by. It is how we associate and continue nurturing our long lasting relationships with clients and friends. We have a mighty, high moral compass. We stay the course. Beverly has challenged us in this market because of the high product quality expectations along with the incredible scams and get rich quick options available from labs to marketers. We have not fallen prey to those tactics. We never waver on quality. We take it personally and feel that our reputation is stamped on each bottle we manufacture and every phone call we answer. People ask us to compare BI to other companies and we can hardly put the difference in words. We feel we are in competition with ourselves not other companies. We take our time and create a new Beverly user one client at a time. That way each person gets to feel like they are part of our internal Beverly family. BI has very long arms. Just like Stretch Armstrong. Roger and I have a lifetime to complete our mission. Beverly is not for everyone. We understand that and accept that. We respect the fact that we are different and are proud of the people (like you) who have chosen our path. We put the client first. They may call us Protein Kings; but we know the client is truly king. Roger and I really don't care about owning the biggest company, we only want to be known for how we treat others and for them to say that Beverly is the Best Quality Sports Supplement in the industry. That is icing on the cake. Today, Roger and I work 10 feet from each other, live together, train together, eat together, promote BB'ing shows together, judge together, and still have meetings about how we need to improve our lives, our family, and our business. Not too much has changed over the past 25 years. We may look a little older, and luckily, we are not broke any longer! The key for two equal partners in a business to get along at the end of the day??? 100% Respect. |
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Greetings!
Welcome to issue #3 of Beverly International's e-newsletter. Our goal is to help you achieve a greater understanding of the supplement industry as a whole and to become a "smarter" consumer of BI supplements in particular. |
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Practical
Information you can use today to save time and money when buying bodybuilding supplements. HMB: Is it a "buy"?
Are HMB supplements worth buying, or worth passing by? In this issue's "Practical" section we'll present some rarely disclosed information that will help you decide for yourself.
In 1995 a compound by the formidable name of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) appeared on store shelves. Supplement marketers blew it up to epic proportions, even comparing it to a well-known anabolic steroid. Consumers went for the bait, and when they didn't get the results they were expecting, they stopped buying. The story of epic proportions appeared to be just that -a story- and HMB quietly exited stage left. Fade to black.
HMB didn't actually fade to black, as it turns out. Its anti-catabolic and (more recently discovered) anabolic effects are quite real, real enough that the number of published studies on it now number in the high double digits. HMB is of interest not only to bodybuilders and others seeking to gain more muscle and performance from their workouts, but also scientists trying to figure out how to help people suffering from muscle-wasting conditions, possibly even including the one we dub "aging."
Why didn't consumers get the results they were expecting? HMB is not a steroid, either in terms of its chemistry or the magnitude of its effects. It is a nutrient; in particular, a metabolite of leucine, an amino acid that must be supplied by your diet. Thus, by blowing HMB up as the next coming of testosterone, marketers were bound to disappoint at least a few shoppers, placebo effects notwithstanding.
It's often been said that HMB works only for "untrained" individuals. This belief stems at least in part from the fact that a number of the studies that reported positive effects (e.g. increases in lean mass and strength, decreases in fat mass) used subjects who had not exercised regularly, or at least not done so for several months.
Research scientists will tell you that individual responses to nutritional supplements, as with exercise, can vary greatly. This may be especially true in the case of trained individuals. And it can make it very difficult to detect anything significant, at least in a statistical sense. Just because something isn't statistically significant, however, this doesn't mean it won't be significant to you.
Jacob Wilson is a researcher at Florida State University and has conducted several studies on HMB. In one of them he examined its effects on muscle soreness. While the reduction in soreness in the group taking HMB pre-exercise did not achieve statistical significance (the p value, as it's called, was 0.07), Jacob explains, "...in normal terms, it was really clear to me that HMB had an effect." He feels that this supplement is most useful for reducing exercise-induced muscle damage or soreness and recovering muscle force-generating capacity after exercise (e.g. restoring your strength after a tiring set of squats).
So inter-individual variability may partly explain the failure to demonstrate statistically significant results in some studies, but what about in the real world?
John Rathmacher (Ph.D.) suggests that dose may be the problem. Rathmacher is a researcher at Iowa State University, the institution that licenses HMB. He has also authored a number of HMB studies. While Rathmacher admits that trained individuals may in some cases notice benefits that are smaller in magnitude, he says that the gains in lean mass observed in studies involving trained subjects have been found to be highly significant.
Trained individuals may simply require larger doses of HMB, according to Rathmacher. He explains, "Many highly trained individuals have much larger muscle mass than untrained individuals and the optimal dosage is 38 mg HMB per kg [2.2 lb] body weight. Therefore trained individuals need [much] more HMB based on body weight."
BI owner Roger Riedinger has found empirically that larger athletes benefit from larger doses of Muscle Synergy. When he took 32 tablets daily he achieved greater results than when he took 16 a day. BI recommends that athletes weighing 200 lb take 24 tablets (supplying 4.5 g of HMB). This equates to a dose that is slightly above what Dr. Rathmacher advises.
Rathmacher also feels that some of the conflicting results (both reported in studies and the real world) may be due to the use of impure supplements. He refers to studies in which subjects were administered preparations that were later tested by Ratchmacher's team and found to contain no HMB. Incidentally, the HMB used in Muscle Synergy has been tested and confirmed to be pure.
For more information about Muscle Synergy, click here. |
Product Smart
A Q&A section devoted to helping you become an expert in the effective use of BI products.
Q: I'm already taking Creatine Select, which I know contains cinnamon. Will it help if I also add cinnamon powder to my meals?
There's a good chance it might. Most of the carbohydrate you eat is eventually metabolized to form glucose. The hormone insulin helps "push" glucose into your cells, including those of skeletal muscle. The more sensitive your muscle cells are to insulin, the less of it is will be required to push a given amount of glucose into them. Thus, your insulin levels should be lower. Remember that insulin also has powerful anti-lipolytic effects; that is, it reduces the breakdown (lipolysis) of body fat. Any ingredient that can safely lower insulin levels may therefore be expected to assist with fat loss.
Of the many plants studied to date, cinnamon has been reported to be among the most powerful in terms of its ability to enhance insulin sensitivity and improve blood glucose regulation even in healthy subjects. When added to a carbohydrate-rich meal, it reduces the rise in blood glucose normally experienced afterwards1. While the effects on insulin sensitivity may take a couple of weeks to manifest (at least in some studies), the improvements in blood glucose regulation appear virtually immediately2. These benefits may last up to 12 hours.
Based on recent studies, it appears that a minimum of 3 g of cinnamon may be needed to produce improvements in insulin sensitivity. Because the benefits may wear off quickly, you probably need to take it every day. To bump up your daily intake, use cinnamon to enhance the flavor of vanilla protein shakes or oatmeal, for instance.
For more information on Creatine Select, click here. |
Networked
Connecting you to the world's leading scientists and manufacturing experts to discuss important supplement-related issues.
The first time I visited gun-friendly Arlington, Texas, I was creatively directing a photo shoot involving former Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman. The evening before the shoot I walked into a Whole Foods Market and was greeted by a sign stating "No guns beyond this point."
Having grown up in Canada, the concept of people freely carrying guns was somewhat foreign to me. For the rest of the trip, particularly when driving in traffic, I proceeded under the assumption that everyone was armed and moderated my behavior accordingly. Come to think of it, the drivers in Arlington seemed unusually calm and reserved. Go figure.
While it may benefit you to assume that everyone is armed in a place with gun laws like Texas, in the "wild west" of the supplement marketplace the same approach may not work so well. That's because there is no guarantee that every product contains exactly what is stated on the label.
Ultimately, the supplement marketplace often behaves like a giant lab experiment, where consumers are the unwitting test subjects. Perhaps the best way to protect yourself is by doing research. For instance, find out as much as you can about the companies you're considering buying products from. How long have they been in business? How do they manufacture their products? Unfortunately, getting answers to the second question can be difficult if not impossible.
When I researched the manufacturing of BI's Super Pak micronutrient supplement, I discovered that it contains over 40 ingredients. Different ingredients suppliers charge different prices, and they can vary considerably depending on market conditions. The Super Pak manufacturing lab therefore relies on multiple suppliers, sometimes even for a single ingredient. This allows BI to reduce costs and pass along the savings to consumers like yourself. But how does it control for quality with so many different suppliers?
What I learned is that each supplier is required to provide the Super Pak manufacturing lab with a Certificate of Analysis (COA) for its ingredients. This is a good start, but it isn't a sure-fire guarantee in and of itself. Arguably even more important than the COAs are the lab's longstanding supplier relationships, some of which date back to the production of its first tablet in the 1970s. The lab director relates:
"We only deal with people who are reputable. We've been in business since 1977 so we know who we're dealing with. You need to be wary. If you receive an email from a new supplier listing prices that sound too good to be true, then you must proceed with caution. The suppliers who provide Super Pak's ingredients are people we've been dealing with for years. We have confidence in them. When our products are assayed, no problems are found. As a small family-owned business, we can't afford to manufacture poor-quality products. If we have to take a batch back, that's money out of our pockets. For this reason alone we are extremely motivated to get things right the first time."
COAs and longstanding supplier relationships help to ensure that the quality of Super Pak's ingredients is high from one batch to the next. The manufacturing lab goes a step further by insisting on purchasing each ingredient individually before blending them with the others. For instance, it could purchase a pre-blended B vitamin mix from a supplier and incorporate it into a tablet. While this would cut costs and provide some other advantages, it would also mean giving up control over things like dose that affect the quality of your experience with the finished product.
BI wants to make sure that each box of Super Pak is armed and ready with every ingredient in 100% of the amount specified on the label. This may require adding a little extra of certain ingredients, termed overage. The size of the overage depends on the nature of the ingredient and whether or not it can be obtained in pure form. For instance, a highly reactive vitamin may require a larger overage to be added before blending in order to compensate for any loss of potency that occurs. If the Super Pak manufacturing lab didn't purchase each ingredient individually before blending, it wouldn't have the ability to create overages.
The quality of Super Pak's ingredients is also maintained through physical inspection. When the ingredients arrive at the lab they're quarantined in a fenced-off section of the warehouse where they're carefully examined by a supervisor who has been working at the lab since 1982 and an ingredients weigher who has been there for a decade. (In order to be compliant with 21 CFR Part 111 by June 2010, the lab will also be required to perform chemical analyses on each ingredient that goes into Super Pak.)
With so many years of industry experience, the Super Pak manufacturing lab knows how micronutrients are supposed to look. The lab director explains:
"You can have 10 white powders laid out on a table in front of you and if you are experienced enough, you will be able to see the differences between them and pick out even the slightest discrepancies. Let's say we open up a container of a particular vitamin and see specks on the powder. In this case we will get on the phone with the supplier, tell them that this is unacceptable and reject the shipment. Every ingredient the lab receives is given its own discrete lot number, not just for that particular ingredient, but that particular batch. Thus, the vitamin C that was purchased last month for Super Pak has a different lot number than the vitamin C that was purchased this month, even if everything else about it is the same. Who was the supplier? The manufacturer? The shipper? Did it come via UPS or Yellow Freight? These and other things are documented. The lab has records going back to the 1970s."
SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES
1. Hlebowicz et al. (2007). Am J Clin Nutr 85: 1552.
2. Solomon and Blannin (2009). Eur J Appl Physiol 105
(6): 969.
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Thanks for reading our BI Newsletter. At Beverly International education and helpfulness are our core values. We know that our BI clients are the best and smartest in the industry and we sincerely hope that the info in this e-newsletter feeds your mind, body, and passion.
Sincerely,
Roger & Sandy Riedinger
Beverly International |
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