In today’s bodybuilding, magazines and some sites write a lot of BS information. And everyone falls or have once fallen for it. They promise something so spectacular, so fast, so great that we just see it and believe it because we want as big results as possible as fast as possible! And the advertisements give that to us….

Cutting through the Bullshit:

1. I really recommend you to watch the movie Bigger Stronger Faster. It shows how the magazines and supplements companies lie to people. For example: they take people who use steroids to promote some kind of supplement so that people start to think that the exact supplement allows you to achieve it. And if you see a bodybuilding champion promoting it then it looks good and a lot of people are convinced. Or, if you see an unknown guy who has a good transformation and now looks a lot better (shredded, ripped, etc.), like in this picture:

This picture is from movie Bigger Stronger Faster and it is done with help of Photoshop (photo editing program). Both pics have been done the same day, at the same studio and the photographer who did this says that 90 percent of all ads of supplements are scams!!!! And I used to believe them! :((

From now on I am not gonna use any supplement probably. Later in the movie the guy buys some stuff and makes his own supplements. Uses small part of the actual supplement ingredients (like creatine monohydrate) and the other part is rice flour. The cost of making one supplement bottle is like 2 bucks, but he can sell it for 60 bucks!!!!!!!!! How is that for a scam. It is possible since you don’t have to prove your stuff works for USA’s government agencies (whoever those are called) who are responsible for this stuff. This is why there are a lot of useless stuff on the market.

2. Don’t believe in promises such as that you will be able to gain 30lbs of muscle in 30 days… That is impossible!!! Let’s calculate, at rate of gaining 1lbs of muscle a day you would be 365lbs heavier after a year of training!!! Now does that sound believable to you? I doubt a human go have that much muscle mass on him no matter how many years he trained and how much steroids he has taken..

Now people who just start training can have big gains (more than 2lbs of muscle a month). Those are called newbie gains and they don’t last long. Only for a month or even less. And it is rare that people gain a big amount of muscle (definitely not 30lbs in 30 days still).

Also, you will see the 5-minute Abs workout or similar ones that promise great results FAST! BULLSHIT!!! Abs are made in the kitchen!!! Don’t fall for those workouts (although they are more towards overweight people). If you see a workout routine that says you will some famous Pro Bodybuilder’s arms then forget it too. They use steroinds and their workouts are not for normal people.

3. Some advertisements might use bad studies to show that the supplement or equipment is incredibly good. One great example of it is called the Colorado Experiment and has been used to promote Nautilus training equipment in the past. Here is the study itself:
http://www.musclenet.com/coloradoexperiment.htm

It says that:

RESULTS . .
First subject (Casey Viator), 28 days
Increase in bodyweight……..45.28 pounds
Loss of bodyfat…………..17.93 pounds
Muscular gain……………..63.21 pounds

Second subject (Arthur Jones),22 days
Increase in bodyweight …….13.62 pounds
Loss of bodyfat……………1.82 pounds
Muscular gain……………..15.44 pounds

How about that??? You like the results? I bet you do. I like them too, BUT..

Here is what Mark Rippetoe, author of a great book Starting Strength has to say (he is very well respected trainer and I trust his opinion a lot):

We were treated to a series of before-and-after ads featuring one Casey Viator, an individual who had
apparently gained a considerable amount of weight using only Nautilus equipment. Missing from
the ads was the information that Mr. Viator was regaining size he previously had acquired through
more conventional methods as an experienced bodybuilder.

The problem, of course, is that machine-based training did not work as it was advertised. It was almost impossible to gain muscular bodyweight doing a circuit. People who were trying to do so would train faithfully for months without gaining any significant muscular weight at all. When they went to barbell training, a miraculous thing would happen: they would immediately gain — within a week — more weight than they had gained in the entire time they had fought with the 12- station circuit.

So as you see bad people (supplement companies mostly) might interpret things in a way that is useful for them. And then we would pay them a lot of money..

In the end, be really careful with what you read. I have actually stopped reading bodybuilding magazines myself. As I said earlier I might now buy a supplement again.. I just am not sure that it is just a bunch of rice flour… If you read stuff, don’t believe in everything, be skeptic about it. Know that the more they promise the less likely it works. Those who know stuff, don’t promise heaven, they say that it will be hard, it will take time, take some work (blood, sweat and tears). Them I’d trust, but it is rare that people tell so these days, if they want to sell you something they will promise you more and faster…

Cheers,
Adrian

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