Nothing has been more distortive to muscle building
information than the low profile prevalence of steroid use.
What else can explain the vast amount of lousy and even
useless training techniques for natural trainers that have
become the prevailing wisdom in the bodybuilding industry?
There's an ongoing discord between fantasy and reality in
what constitutes an effective natural muscle gaining
routine. That discord is most likely attributable to the
obvious yet often unaddressed contrast between the
physiology of a steroid user and that of a non-user.
This contrast is the only explanation for bodybuilding's
longtime miring in misinformation; a muddling that's often
resulted in almost humorously contradictory recommendations
and advice.
Here's a list of strange observations I've made over the
years that I think can be linked, either directly or
indirectly, to some of that misinformation:
• In 1988, I attended a bodybuilding seminar put on by one
of the top Mr. Olympia contenders of the time. When asked
by an audience member about a specific workout routine, the
pro bodybuilder answered that the workout schedule in
question would be worthless for putting on muscle mass.
Within a month, I saw that exact workout/recovery schedule
being recommended in a bodybuilding magazine by the
then-Mr. Olympia.
• In the '90s, that same Mr. Olympia had a morning workout
television program for mainstream fitness. During an
episode, I heard him talk to Geraldo Riviera about the
evils of "anabolics" (code-word for steroids). He was
apparently trying to dissuade youngsters from using them.
Yet he admitted within other mediums that he used them
regularly (of course he used them; he was a pro
bodybuilder).
• During the aforementioned seminar in 1988, that Mr.
Olympia contender told the audience that when he began
bodybuilding, he was able to put on "ten solid pounds of
muscle per year". He went on to reveal that in his advanced
stages in the sport, he was lucky to add "two pounds of
muscle a year". These words were from an elite
professional bodybuilder who admitted to regular steroid
use. Yet we're treated to claims of gaining "twenty pounds
of muscle in twelve weeks" from average Joe's on the
Internet. (no wonder I don't see pictures with these
claims).
• In the late eighties, there was a bodybuilding book that
claimed you could gain 30 pounds of muscle in six weeks
from doing "super squats" and drinking a lot of milk. That
book should have been titled 'How to become an over-trained
gasbag within a month and a half'.
• I've actually heard a top professional bodybuilder say he
didn't believe in over-training; only "under eating and
under sleeping". So, even though our bodies are designed to
burn and renew a finite amount of energy each day, just
stuffing them with more food than they can process and
sleeping until we're drooling on our pillows will
compensate for excessive muscle teardown? A very misleading
statement.
• In the early '90s, a bodybuilding guru was espousing an
extremely high calorie diet for gaining muscle. I think he
was the guy who started the "no such thing as over-training
– just under-eating and under-sleeping" nonsense. Anyway,
in order to make sure we could all take in our recommended
10,000 calories a day, he'd sell MCT oil to everyone. Just
dowse some on your meals and add a whopping 120 calories
per tablespoon so you can be in an "anabolic state". The
funny thing was that he recommended doing aerobic exercise
each day to burn excess calories. Now let's see, I think
I'll spend money on extra calories so I can try to burn
them off each day before I turn into Jabba the Hut. Yeah…
that makes a lot of sense. Yet there were write-ups about
this guy in magazines as if he were a genius.
• I read an old interview of Arnold Schwarzenegger in which
he estimated that anabolic steroids only gave bodybuilders
like him a five percent edge over what they'd accomplish
without them. Did he expect readers to believe that? Why
would anyone risk their health for such a meager boost? If
that were true, couldn't he find a way to make up that
little five percent in a less destructive manner?
• Back when the andro thing was big, a bodybuilder who
worked in a supplement store tried to talk me into buying
some. He said he gained five pounds of muscle in three
weeks from using it. I knew he wanted to get super big, so
I immediately wondered why he wasn't continuing to cycle it
so that he could gain umpteen pounds for the year. I told
him "I'm not impressed; I can gain or lose five pounds of
water weight in a single day". Within a few months, he did
a steroid cycle. I wondered what happened to his belief in
andro.
• A competitive, steroid-built bodybuilder who works out at
my gym sidelines as a personal fitness trainer. I witnessed
him simultaneously train two people on a leg workout that
had those unfortunate clients wobbling for the door as if
he'd turned their underpinnings into wet noodles. He'd
coaxed them to perform set after set of forced reps on a
leg press machine. They were shaking their heads in
disbelief as he wore an expression of self-indulged
smugness. I guess he forgot to tell them they'd need to
make secret trips to Mexico in order to recover from such a
"workout".
Some of these are kind of humorous, but not that last one.
I've seen too many people hand over their hard-earned money
for instruction in natural bodybuilding from those who
don't build their own bodies naturally. That's money being
paid oftentimes to merely feed the ego of someone that
probably knows less about your body than you do. In the
case I described above, he sure doesn't know enough about
bodybuilding to realize that the simplistic "harder you
train – the more you gain" mantra most often leads to
wasted time and disappointment.
My advice to natural bodybuilders: Seek unorthodox methods
for making muscle gains. The routines that keep getting
regurgitated in mainstream bodybuilding and fitness
magazines are usually not the most conducive to long-term
muscle gains.
I have lousy bodybuilding genetics, as anyone who's seen my
website or blog pictures will attest. But I finally started
making impressive natural gains when I went against
conventional wisdom and stopped adhering to the distortions
of muscle building created by steroid use. Lest you want to
be confused or disillusioned by the strangeness of
bodybuilding as illustrated above, I recommend you do the
same.
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation, visit http://
http://www.hardbodysuccess.com
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