The following is a special release for the May 2007 issue of Muscle & Fitness:
May 2007 Release: Slugger Albert Pujols Featured!
WOODLAND HILLS, CA, MARCH 15, 2007 - St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols will be featured on the May cover Muscle & Fitness Magazine, due out on newsstands April 2. The cover, which features a sleeveless Pujols in the Busch Stadium weight room, is accompanied by a 10-page feature story on the how the first baseman's workout program has helped his baseball career.
Pujols, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs in at around 245 pounds, hit 49 home runs last season, running his career total to 250 in six seasons, despite missing nearly 20 games due to injury. He also helped the Cardinals to win the World Series in 2006.
Injuries:
"Albert is the poster boy for the evolution of weight training in pro sports," says M&F senior editor Eric Velazquez. "His off-season workout program is really much more intense than we had anticipated. It accounts for how strong he is coming into each season, and how he's able to keep it up for 150-plus games."
Pujols demonstrated this early-season strength last year by clubbing a Major League-record 14 home runs in the month of April.
Muscle & Fitness Editor in Chief Peter McGough says, "We are delighted to have such a sporting luminary as Albert on the cover. With his commitment to the weight room he fully deserves to be the first baseball player to appear on a Muscle & Fitness cover in our 68-year history."
The 10-page feature explains how Pujols got past some initial reservations on weight training - "I was worried it might mess up my swing," he says - to become one of the strongest and most productive players in the game today.
"I train really hard," Pujols says in the article. "There aren't too many baseball players out there who can say they train as hard as me."
The feature, which includes a detailed account of his off-season training routine, is followed by the 2007 MLB Strength Team, as picked by the editors at Muscle & Fitness.
Check out the May issue of Muscle & Fitness on newsstands April 2, or visit www.muscleandfitness.com.
To interview a member of the M&F staff, please contact Weider Publications Business Director Anne Byron at abyron@weiderpub.com or at 818-595-0417.
To interview Albert Pujols, please contact Josh Goldberg at the Beverly Hills Sports Council at 310-858-1872 or contact the Cardinals' front office.
For more M&F, visit their website: www.muscleandfitness.com.