Beverly International No Nonsense E-Newsletter

BI:  Over 30 years of results.  A history of consumer respect.

July, 2010
In This Issue
Beverly Blog
Product Smart - Creatine Shopping List
Practical - How Much Cinnamon?
Combine - 3 Products for Enhanced Results
BI Blog
 

By: Sandy & Roger Riedinger

Beverly International Nutrition

 

In our last No Nonsense E-Newsletter Sandy took you behind the scenes and told you how we got started with Beverly International. This issue I'm going to fill in more details and tell you a little bit about myself and how everything came together.

 

I graduated from college in 1970 with an Accounting degree. But, instead of following that career path, I went into education. Taught 7-8 grade math and algebra for 19 years in an inner city school, all the time acquiring more and more education, first a masters of science, then a rank I (30 + hours above a masters) in administration. I spent my last 10 years in education as principal of a rural elementary school.

 

All the while, (from age 9) I lifted and learned everything I could about it. I really got interested in supplements on graduation from high school - getting ready to go to UC on a track scholarship (discus and long jump) and needed to add some muscle. First, was Weider and Hoffman crash weight, but soon went to Blair's (and consulted regularly with Blair).

 

I first became acquainted with Beverly (BI) in the later "70's from Iron Man and then met Jim at the 1981 Midwest Invitational contest.

 

I opened Polaris Total Fitness Center in 1982 (that's where I met Sandy a couple of years later) and carried Blair's and Beverly International. Blair was winding down at that time so we pretty much were all Beverly.  One thing I especially remember is we started with BI exclusively, then around 1985 supplement marketing started mushrooming and I fell for it and started carrying a number of lines. But, the funny thing is, whenever I or a gym member was interested in competing, without conscious thought, we always put them on Beverly.

 

I sold the gym in 1986 but Sandy and I continued to sell Beverly as private distributors. Whenever I had the opportunity I would pump Jim Heflin for info. Some of his stories regarding the industry were astounding. Being from KY I had no idea of the kinds of trade practices that existed in the supplement industry. Luckily, BI, along with Natural Source were in business for the right reasons and made legitimate products, without undue hype, and that always met label claim.

 

In 1990, Jim asked Sandy and me if we would like to be his reps in the Southern Ohio/KY area. At the same time Bob O'Leary asked if we would like to represent BOSS which carried numerous brands. The deal was we had to purchase the inventory up front from Jim (initially about $3500) while with BOSS we needed no initial investment, we'd just send in the orders to be fulfilled.

 

We looked into our hearts and knew that to stay true to our values we had to go with Beverly. I played music at night after acting as principal in the day, and Sandy added group aerobic classes to her dental technician and full-time new mother duties. It was still taking too long so Sandy sold her Jetta for the final $1000. We saved the money up and placed our first order as BI authorized dealers.

 

Once we made the investment, we started studying everything we could about entrepreneurship and starting and growing a business.

 

We had to start from scratch because the distributor whose place we took started his own supplement line and initially took all of his established customers with him.

 

Our 1st year goal as distributor was $20,000 gross sales (not profit, but total sales). We reached it on New Year's Eve at 6:00pm when a national competitor from New Jersey called with his order. I'll never forget, he was a physics teacher and told me that he always ordered Beverly because it really contained what it said. He told me that for example, l-carnitine attracted water and when he left his Energy Reserve bottle open, the tablets swelled with water. He didn't need to analyze it in his lab to know it was the real thing.

 

Gradually the old customers started looking for Beverly again and many competitors in particular were seeking help so we added a Nutrition Consultation aspect to the business and one by one, grew customers. In 1995, Sandy and I attended a Zig Ziglar seminar (as part of my job as principal) in the very last session a guy named Dan Kennedy came on, everyone was leaving but Sandy and I stayed. He gave us our first lesson in marketing, but not what you normally think of when you hear the word advertising or marketing, he said the best marketing was to:

  • make quality products that you use yourself for best results (same formula as Jim Heflin started BI with)
  • go the extra mile in customer service.

We've stuck to this formula for the past 15 years. If there is something better available and it's something we would use ourselves, we have our research team figure out how to make it into a product that will give us the best results possible, we then make it available to the public.

 

Jim Heflin retired in 1998 and sold BI to Sandy and Roger. We have carried on since.

 

Beverly's core values are:

  • Integrity - we define this as being completely honest in our dealings with others, even in matters that may be known only to us.
  • A "client" vs "customer" mindset. A customer is someone who buys a product or service; a client is someone who is under your care, someone who you act in a "fiduciary" role.
  • Optimization and Innovation - continuous and never ending improvement

 

From 1999-2009 Sandy and Roger have increased Beverly sales by 806%.

 

Mentors:

Jim Heflin

Rheo Blair 

Jim Rohn

Jay Abraham

Brian Tracy

Jeff Everson

 

What we have done to create a successful business:

  • Set Goals
  • Take full Responsibility
  • Go the Extra Mile in quality and service
  • Develop personal relationships with clients
  • Self Discipline
  • Positive Mental Attitude
  • Accurate Thinking (not pie in the sky)
  • Learned from Adversity
  • Paid Close Attention to Boring Business Basics (Accounting, etc)

 

Summary: It's almost like my (Roger's) whole life was leading me to this position. My need to build up for track and field led to study of weight training and the supplement industry; accounting degree (though latent for 25 years) turned out to be indispensable in running Beverly; teaching and education has allowed me to write, edit, and publish No Nonsense magazine (since 1995) and make it into an educational physique improvement/bodybuilding nutrition journal, education experience has helped also in furthering BI staff education in weekly meetings. 

Quick Links...

 
Join Our Mailing List
Greetings!   
 
Welcome to issue #4 of Beverly International's monthly e-newsletter. One of our clients shared a great idea with us this week.  He told us that he created a folder named "Beverly" in his email Inbox. He collects all the BI e-newsletters in this folder for easy reference.  We thought this was a great idea and one worth passing along to our e-newsletter readers. 
 
Product Smart

Information you can use today to save time and money when buying bodybuilding supplements.

Creatine Shopping List

"Creatine and post-exercise protein/EAA remain the best nutritional options to promote FFM during training."

That's a quote from Richard Kreider, Ph.D., a professor and head of the Department of Health & Kinesiology at Texas A&M University. Kreider is a recognized sports nutrition authority. And he's not alone in his views. Ask any of his scientific colleagues and they'll likely agree that creatine and protein or essential amino acids (EAA) are the most established supplements available to bodybuilders and anyone else trying to increase their fat-free mass (FFM), a tissue compartment that includes skeletal muscle.

We'll talk about protein in another issue, but for now, let's focus on how to choose a good creatine supplement.

(1) Stick with CrH2O: BI uses only creatine monohydrate (CrH2O) in its products for the simple reason that it's been shown to work in study after study. Numerous other forms of creatine have appeared in supplements since CrH2O hit store shelves more than two decades ago. Yet it remains the most "proven." At least 200 studies have been published on creatine, and practically all of them used CrH2O.

While some marketers suggest that CrH2O has poor bioavailability, the research suggests otherwise. For instance, scientists like Darren Burke, Ph.D., of St. Francis Xavier University have found that CrH2O has near 100% bioavailability1.

(2) Avoid CrEE: This may sound like strong language, but it's fair. Creatine ethyl ester (CrEE) and other creatine esters just don't have the scientific evidence to back them up like CrH2O does. Perhaps someday things will be different. But until then, you're probably better off investing your money on the stuff that research has consistently shown to work.

In the rare instance that CrEE and CrH2O have been compared head to head, the latter comes out on top.Spillane et al.2 came to this conclusion after carrying out such a comparison in 2009. CrH2O was found to be both more bioavailable and more effective at stimulating intracellular hydration. Increased intracellular hydration is associated with greater muscle anabolism (e.g. protein synthesis).

Instead of pushing water into muscle cells, CrEE actually appeared to cause extracellular water retention, also known as edema. This is obviously not something you want if your goal is to develop a hard, muscular body.

In another study, Giese and Lecher3 provided evidence that CrEE is likely to be converted not into creatine after ingestion, but rather creatinine, an inactive "waste" product. They concluded, "[CrEE] is a pronutrient for creatinine rather than creatine under all physiological conditions encountered during transit through the various tissues, thus no ergogenic effect is to be expected from supplementation." Sure, it's possible that other studies may be performed which refute the results of these, but let's face it...so far CrEE is not off to a good start.

(3) Cycle it if you want to: Spend a little time reading about creatine supplementation on the Internet and you might come to the conclusion that "cycling" (i.e. on-and-off use) is essential. The reality, however, is that the verdict is still out on this practice. We just don't have enough research to draw any firm conclusions yet.

Burke, mentioned above, has published numerous studies on creatine. His research suggests that cycling may be of some use to athletes, but not in the way it is typically practiced with steroids. Burke explains that once you've loaded your muscles with CrH2O you can continue supplementing with it for 2-3 days before taking 2 days off, followed by another 2-3 days of supplementation, followed by another 2 days off, and so on.

Burke says that for the best results one of the off days should be a rest day, whereas the "on" days (creatine supplementation) should be exercise days. This practice is thought to allow for down-regulation of the creatine transport proteins ("receptors") in your muscles to return to normal. Also, if you eat a creatine-free diet (no meat) for as little as 2 weeks and follow this with creatine loading, Burke says that there may be greater creatine uptake and increased performance, as well as a transient "reperfusion hypertrophy" (muscle pump), as he calls it.

[NOTE: The 'loading phase' of creatine supplementation usually amounts to taking around 20-30 grams of creatine per day (4-6 servings of 5 grams each) for 5 days. This allows your muscles to quickly become saturated with creatine. Once you've finished the loading phase, Dr. Burke suggests taking creatine 2-3 days at a time followed by 2 days off.]

To learn about BI's CREATINE SELECT, click here.

Practical

A Q&A section devoted to helping you become an expert in the effective use of BI products.

Q: In another issue I learned that cinnamon can lower blood glucose levels and improve insulin sensitivity. I put cinnamon in MUSCLE PROVIDER shakes and on my oatmeal. How much do I need to see results?

A: We asked this question of Richard Anderson, Ph.D., a well-published cinnamon researcher at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. The BHNRC is the largest of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) human nutrition research facilities.

 

Anderson suggests taking approximately one half teaspoon per day divided into 2 doses (1 to 3 g each). This, he says, should be adequate to produce effects on blood glucose and insulin levels. Anderson adds, "There is a difference among cinnamons, but most all seem to have some activity. There are also capsules of the water extract of cinnamon that are very good."4
 
Combine  
How to stack BI products for enhanced results. 
 
No single supplement can do it all. In a nutshell, that's why people combine them. If you're looking to enhance the results of your workouts, consider stacking UP-LIFT, CREATINE SELECT and MUSCLE SYNERGY.
 

Stimulant-free UP-LIFT is great for use as a pre- and intra-workout formula, particularly if you're already taking caffeine-containing supplements or simply don't like caffeine.

With its unique blend of CrH2O, phosphates and beta-alanine, CREATINE SELECT gives you even more power to fight muscle fatigue and pile on the plates. Unlike other formulas, CREATINE SELECT contains electrolyte-bound phosphates. The combination of creatine and phosphates has been found to increase anaerobic working capacity by nearly 24% in 48 hours and nearly 50% in less than a week5. Subjects taking creatine by itself failed to significantly increase their work capacity.

More research is required to make definitive claims about the combination of creatine and phosphates. However, it stands to reason that if you are supplementing with creatine, you might be well advised to take phosphates at the same time. After all, the principal reason you're taking creatine is so that your muscles can convert it into phosphocreatine (PC). PC is produced from phosphate and creatine.

During exercise PC is broken down. This releases the energy needed to re-synthesize ATP, a high-energy molecule that is the driving force of muscle contraction.

Finally, if you want to recover faster, then MUSCLE SYNERGY, with its clinical dose of HMB, might be your golden ticket. Iowa State University researcher and HMB authority John Rathmacher, Ph.D., agrees that studies published to date provide evidence that HMB supplementation may speed recovery from exercise:

"The data are pretty clear in many of the studies, HMB decreases CPK [creatine phosphokinase] after strenuous exercise.  Therefore, muscle damage is less when compared to a placebo treatment. Soreness is more difficult to measure because it is a subjective measure usually performed over a period of days and an individual's assessment of soreness may vary from one day to the next. We do agree that decreased soreness and quicker recovery has been reported in both studies and by users of HMB.  MTI [Metabolic Technologies, which has exclusively licensed HMB patents from Iowa State University] is currently undertaking new studies looking at markers of inflammation, soreness and strength recovery after maximal elbow flexion exercise. These measures may definitively show that muscle recovers quicker with HMB supplementation."6

For more information about UP-LIFT click here.

 

For more information about CREATINE SELECT click here.

For more information about MUSCLE SYNERGY click here.

 

Questions or comments? Please send them to: bevnut@beverlyinternational.net.

For more information about Rob Thoburn, visit www.robthoburn.com.


SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES

1. Burke D. Personal communication.

2. Spillane M et al. (2009). J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 19(6): 6.

3. Giese MW and Lecher CS (2009). Biochem Biophys Res Comm. 388(2): 252.

4. Anderson RA. Personal communication.

5. Eckerson JM et al. (2005). J Strength Cond Res. 19(4): 756.

6. Rathmacher J. Personal communication.

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