Phil Heath On How Recalled Almond Butter Ruined His Abs And Midsection

April 25, 2018

The midsection has always been a critical aspect of physique.

It continues to be one of the most vexing aspects of elite competition because the goal is not growth, but tightness. This defies the general practices of most elite bodybuilders. Recently the dreaded ‘bubble gut’ has been an object of harsh criticism from the bodybuilding community.

Massive Muscle recently posted a video in which Phil Heath talks about his endeavors to keep a relatively trim waistline. He says that one episode with recalled almond butter gave him particular trouble.

“Ten weeks out from the Olympia I was ingesting almond butter that was on recall – did not know it. I was doing it for two whole months. So about two weeks out I started noticing like wow I’m having these problems. I can’t keep my stomach in- my diaphragm- everything hurts really really bad. I thought ‘Okay I need to go to the store.’ Find out it was on recall, holy shit, what do I do? There’s this thing called magnesium citrate try to flush out my whole system. It didn’t work but also it ruined my electrolyte balance which in turn left me with more bloating.”

Phil adds that that experience steered him away from nuts in general. Although he doesn’t say he has an allergy too them, he is wary of their potential to cause devastating bloating.

That’s Phil’s main point on the diet. As far as training – he says ab work is critical.

“Training the abs obviously helps, especially when you’re a bigger guy. Its always easy when you’re 150 lbs even 200 pounds trying to get abs. It’s pretty basic. But as you get bigger – we’re talking 225, 235, 250 range, it’s very difficult. Because everything seems to want to grow. It’s gonna grow proportionate with your body. It’s very hard to manage that. So what you have to do is really focus on a lot of cardio. Focus on types of ab work -hanging leg raises, jackknifes, suitcase crunches, bicycle kicks – stuff like that.”

Phil says that the best way to identify bloating agents in the diet is to keep a food and physique log – otherwise you are stuck without any real data from which to make decisions.