Salvatore Aranzulla reveals to Gazzetta the training and diet that gave him a Hulk body. And as for social networks …
Eugenio Spagnuolo
– Milano
Last year the revelation, right on these pages: Salvatore Aranzulla, oracle of all the answers to our hi-tech problems, is a lover of bodybuilding, a “physical” discipline to which he applies the same painstaking passion he has for ‘informatics. A contradiction in terms? Not at all, because as Aranzulla a Journalhis progress and his athletic evolutions were also made possible by the strategic use of spreadsheets, apps and an “intelligent” scale. The Aranzulla Method (from the title of one of his famous books) applied to fitness, in short. One year later the technologist most loved by Italians he also talks to us about his diet, about how a healthy lifestyle, in addition to giving him a statuesque body, helps him to keep an auto-immune disorder at bay and warns us of the risks we run when we use social media at place of the mirror.
Last year you told a Journal of your passion for bodybuilding, generating a certain amazement: few expected that the king of tech guides had a passion for the gym, for diets. How did followers and readers take it?
“Many continue to write to me, especially on Instagram. So much amazement, which amuses me a little.”
An action figure has also popped up that depicts you in version muscle man.
“I discovered it by chance: one day I saw a meme … I thought it was a photomontage. But it was true. A very nice thing, they even sent it to me”.
And how are you going with your workouts and everything today? From the photos it looks good …
“I have stabilized on 4 workouts a week. Compared to a year ago my physical condition has improved, I can see it too. But …”.
“I have stopped confronting myself with the fitness images that run on social media: references that are impossible for a human being. Instead, the feedback I receive from those who follow me give me the measure of my improvements from a physical point of view”.
How does Salvatore Aranzulla train compared to last year?
“The workout is unchanged. Always at home with my fitness equipment in 4 sessions a week of one hour, 2 for the legs, 2 for the upper body. It is a training that I adapt according to the periods and the desire to experiment new things when I feel discomfort or pain. Example the Lat machine for the lats: I noticed that changing the grip I felt less fatigue. But the training pattern remains almost the same. ”
Do you follow any training theory in particular?
“No, a traditional workout, but I adapt it to the multi-function machine I have at home and the dumbbells. And I always try to progress between sections, increasing the loads. In the end, any type of training works, as long as there is a progression “.
Which exercise gives you the most satisfaction?
“I like the work I’m doing on the back, I worked hard to improve the loads. It wasn’t my strong point, but I managed to bring them to a similar level as the pectorals.”
Self-esteem aside, what benefits did you get from training?
“Since I started training again I have never had any relapse of ulcerative colitis, the disease I’ve been living with for years. The therapy will also have played its part. But what I do know is that I have never had relapses again: in the past I had them once a year and I was really sick. I believe that working out helps relieve stress. Then I follow a balanced diet. And this also counts “.
Do you follow a particular diet?
“I tried to go into a calorie deficit. But I realized that after a week I was no longer working well and I couldn’t concentrate so I went back to a normal calorie diet.”
And is a normal calorie diet not enough for your purposes?
“Yes and no. I have my weight loss goals. I am 1.70 cm tall and weigh 66 kg. Last year I had reached a percentage of fat around 12% of body weight. So I immersed myself in a growth phase. muscle, eating more and the percentage of fat went up to 14/15%. Then some health problems stopped me and I lost muscle mass. I decided to try a low-calorie diet: but I could no longer work and I lacked energy. So I decided to go back to maintenance until the summer. And in that moment I understood something… “.
“In the end all this putting on weight and losing weight and vice versa works for athletes who only do this in life or for those who use performance-enhancing drugs. For all of us who train in an amateur way, it’s different. With a Spartan diet we risk not being able to work. And then sometimes we let ourselves be influenced too much by the images of social media: Tik Tok and Instagram show you people who have minimal percentages of body fat, something that is impossible in reality except for short periods and for very few people. I also fell for it that according to Dexa data I have a better physical condition than 99% of men my age. Yet if I compare myself with what I see on social media, I see myself badly “.
Not infrequently, those who practice bodybuilding do not have a real physical perception of themselves. Even Schwarzenegger admitted it …
“It’s true. And it can become a problem. I’ve learned to look at myself, to focus on improving loads and progressing as far as I can.”
Do you use any supplements?
“Protein powder, creatine and a multi-vitamin when I can’t eat all the fruit I want. Same thing for protein: I take it if I can’t get the protein quota for the day.”
Speaking of protein meals, a typical recipe of yours?
“I’m Sicilian, I really like octopus. So pasta with octopus. To make it first, I buy it already cooked, steamed, I make it into cubes, add 10 grams of oil, 100 of cherry tomatoes and a little water from cooking the pasta . The result is a sauce with a percentage of fat close to zero. And with 120 g of octopus you reach the daily protein quota. It is a very nutritious food “.
What method do you use to calculate the percentage of fat?
“I have a professional scale that helps me calculate it. It is an error-prone estimate but it roughly takes us.”
And then how do you translate all this into a diet?
“It’s not complicated. I weigh myself every day and keep track of calories. So, based on the weight and calories taken the day before, I can determine how much I will have to eat in the meals of the day, to correct the surplus or the deficit of previous days and strive towards the goal I set myself “.
The Aranzulla Method applied to the diet. Haven’t you thought about spreading it?
“I’d like to make an app, but there are tons of them. For now everything is based on spreadsheets, which are reminiscent of when I was studying statistics at university. It took me about 5 years to create them. Maybe one day I publish them. and I make them available to everyone “.
The ultimate goal of all this commitment?
“Aging in good health. Lately I have been passionate about the science of longevity. I read many books about it. One, above all, I would like to recommend: The great way by Franco Berrino and Luigi Fontana, a great book that provides many useful information for aging in a healthy way. Which is what we all want. Or not?”.
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