Dave Palumbo: This is Dave Palumbo with RX Girl Training. I am here Dana Linn Bailey, 3 weeks out from the 2011 NPC USA, which she’ll be competing in the New Women’s Physique Division. We are here at Gold’s Gym in Exeter, PA. And we’re going to be doing a little Isolator arm cuff training, a new apparatus that the Isolator Company has come out with, Dana, and you are going to be demonstrating it for us here today and showing us how to use it properly.

Dana Linn Bailey: Hi. Yes, I will.

DP: Now, we talked about this a couple of times before that you are a little too muscular for the judges’ tastes and figure, and you never really quite did as well as people thought you should have. They came out with this New Women’s Physique Division. The debut event will be at the Junior USA where they’ll be giving, I think, I believe two pro cards out there. And you’re going to be competing in that inaugural event there. Are you excited?

DLB: Yes, I am very excited. Hopefully, finally do well in something because I haven’t been doing well for the last two shows… Well, two national shows. So I’m sick of not placing at all. Hopefully, I do a little bit better.

DP: Especially with the great physique too, and everyone always compliments you. I always have people coming up to me and pointing at you, especially mostly girls saying, “I love the way she looks. She’s got the greatest body.” And then here you go up on stage and you’re placed 9th or 10th or worse.

DLB: Oh, it was way worse. I think at Nationals, I think I had like 45 girls on my class but I was in like the 30th. I was near the bottom. I came in way too hard, I guess, for that show.

DP: And you don’t even die hard for those shows.

DLB: No. Not at all.

DP: I saw you in Pittsburgh this past weekend at Jim Manion Show and I saw the judges taking a look at you and giving you some critique. What was their feeling about the way you look right now going into this Junior USA? Do they like this look for Women’s Physique?

DLB: Yeah. It’s definitely going to be a little bit of a step up from figure. So what I need to do is just lean up a little bit. In this video, I think I’m 3 or 4 weeks out, so I just need to lose a little bit of weight, hard enough just a little bit. But you don’t want to be too hard, not too shredded. You don’t want to be [02:34] ____, you don’t want to have crazy vascularity. They said they don’t mind if there’s a little bit veins popping out here and there because we’re going to be a little bit leaner than figure. So, it’s figure with a little bit of muscle, but not like body building. It’s like a softer muscular look.

DP: Which means they basically don’t have any idea what they’re looking for yet.

DLB: Yeah. What I see it as it’s more of like an athletic look, which that’s definitely what I go for. I look more like an athlete than sort of like… I think figure’s a little more, almost Barbie doll style with nice cells and a nice back. It’s like a sculpted Barbie doll and I don’t feel like I look like a Barbie doll at all.

DP: No, you look like a little mini bodybuilder. I think that’s what they’re looking for.

DLB: Yes.

DP: You look like a small bodybuilder.

DLB: I guess it’s more like a natural-looking bodybuilder for this physique.

DP: You have a lot of muscle. I think that the way figure first started is what they’re looking for, those who are a little more muscular.

DLB: Yeah, yeah. Figure used to be a little bit bigger, and it’s probably getting a little bit smaller. It still looks good. Everyone that competes still looks amazing. I’m just a little out of the category now.

DP: Well, I suppose a lot of people are going to enter this new category. And I’m sure the new category will evolve as the shows go on and they decide what looks good and what doesn’t look good. And I think it definitely has to certainly establish itself as something new and different than what’s out there. Let’s talk about this cuff because this is intriguing. A lot of people have really caught on to the Isolator especially after the couple of videos that we did here. They got a new cuff. I see you’re using it for the tricep-kickbacks right now.

DLB: Oh, yeah.

DP: And the great thing is you don’t have to hold on at all. I see it’s just attached to your wrist there.

DLB: Yeah. For anytime I do bi’s, tri’s, I use the cuff. I get a lot of wrist pain, forearm pain, anytime I do anything like a straight bar curl, not even that I’m going that heavy, I guess maybe I have a bad wrist, I don’t know. And anything reverse grip, the cuff is awesome. It just takes away completely out of your hands so you don’t have to focus on your grip. There’s no pain in your forearm, there’s no pain in your wrist at all. Inside the cuff, there’s an actual patented gel that disperses the weight. So you could actually put this gel over your hand and hit your hand with a hammer, and what it does, it takes the impact of that pressure and disperses it through the whole gel. So that’s actually inside the cuff. So it makes it perfect for lifting.

DP: Well, you know, it’s funny because I’ve been using the cuff myself a little bit. This is like a little easier for me to use than the other Isolator. Although, I’ve used that too, but this is easier because it just goes around your wrist and you pop it on the different cable apparatuses, which is all I use for arms anyway. And I noticed that it doesn’t hurt your wrist. Is that why, because it’s got that gel inside?

DLB: Yeah. And plus, you’re just taking all the pressure that would normally be in your palm, weighing your wrist down. And now, you’re just attaching to the bottom. I think a lot of the pain from the wrist comes from hand weight being holding your hand.

DP: But I’m talking about… I’ve tried to use different leg heavies like leg cuffs and I’ve tried to put different things on my wrists to do stuff similar to this, and it always seems to rub on my wrist and I get blisters and stuff.

DLB: Actually our gym has those too and I don’t know why people use them because a lot of people are sharing them. So here you gain your own personal cup and the bonus is it does have the patented gel inside. It does decrease by dispersing the weight so you’re not going to get all that pressure right on your wrist, right where the attachment is.

DP: I see you’ve been dancing a lot in the gym, is that from the cuffs make you dance too?

DLB: Yes. It does, actually. It makes you a better dancer. [laughter]

DP: I am going to try after and add them a little more frequently, the first one I got.

DLB: Obviously, I need a little more work with them. [laughter]

DP: Less than I admit for sure. I really love them for the overhead triceps extension that you’re doing right now. You can completely see that the triceps are totally isolated at this point, no pun.

DLB: Yeah. It’s awesome for tri’s.

DP: What do you… What exercises do you pretty much do for biceps with these movements? Do you just emulate and simulate the normal exercises you do as well?

DLB: Yeah, yeah, basic. And then, you could just… You sort of just turn the cuff around so like if you want to change up your grip, you just… You put the ring where you would normally be holding the bar. The bar would be under your feet, just put the ring where would fit in and you just change up your grip or do single arms, double arms. I like doing laying down one because it keeps your elbows in, sort of a concentration curl. So pretty much anything you can do regularly, you can do with this.

DP: You got one hell of a set of arms there, that’s for sure. You’re the perfect person to be demonstrating this. Everyone’s going to watch us and say, “Man, I got to get those cuffs.” But the truth is, and I’ve used them too, they really, really do work. There’s absolutely nothing you can do except use the muscle that you’re training. You cannot cheat because the number one way to cheat when doing arms is to use your forearms. Everyone knows that.

DP: Exactly. And there’s no forearm action involved with this at all.

DLB: Whose idea was it to come out with this cup? Was it Dave’s or was it yours? Who was the brainchild behind this one?

DP: David. He’s so smart. That was once again Dave’s brilliant idea. That, we just… He just started thinking about stuff and then brought it up to us and then obviously, we’re like, “Again that is an awesome idea.” And he just goes right in and has someone fill it up and we did think kind of test trial. We’re sort of the test dummies so we tried the first pair and we’re like you know what, the one strap… Which started out with one strap then we went to two straps and then, actually, we went to three straps because, I mean your wrist is smaller than your forearm so we wanted to go that it could go tight to your wrist. And then, it sort of loosens up towards your forearm. So it… When your fit is perfect, if you only had one strap, it would be lose either at the forearm… Well, probably it won’t be lose at the forearm, probably would be lose at the wrist, and that’s where he wanted the tight is, anyway.

DP: Right. Well, you can see that it is very secure and it is a very well-made piece of equipment. As the regular Isolator, when I got it in the kit, I mean it comes in a bag, it’s got these clips on it. I feel like I’m gonna go rock climbing when I go to the gym with this…

DLB: Well, actually, the carabineers we use, that’s what they use for rock climbing. They’re very high quality.

DP: I highly recommend it. I know you do. You’re an advocate of this. You’re one of the first few that even use this, they experiment and Guinea pig on you and Seth Feroce. You look phenomenal, Dana. I’m really excited to see you on stage because I think you’re finally going to get your due at the Junior USA and hopefully, you’ll come home with that Pro Card you’re looking for.

DLB: I hope so and it’s my dream come true. [laughter]

DP: So now that we are out of time, I’m Dave Palumbo with Dana Linn Bailey, RX Girl Training.