Bodybuilding Magazine BULLSHIT

iron addict

New member
I was at a training forum I visit frequently this weekend. It is a wonderful forum with a knowledgeable mod staff and usually good readers/posters. Here are three of the “proposed” routines young trainees were asking questions about. All of them came strait out of the bodybuilding mags that are obviously more intent on providing “spectacular, thrilling” programs as opposed to something that actually works.

One guy wanted advice on a 12 hour arm program. Guaranteed to add mass to your arms in one workout. I am familiar with these and they are……bullshit.

My response was: One workout will NOT in any way contribute to a large long-term gain. When someone does one of these marathon workouts what occurs is the body loads TONS of nutrients in response. The muscle worked goes up in size temporarily, but it is mosty nutrient loading.

If it were that simple to add muscle we would all be looking like Ronnie. Just do a 12 hour workout for each bodypart every other week and be the man you always wanted to be--LMFAO.

Quit reading "Flex" and you will be a lot better off. Most of the SHIT is made to sell magazines, not make you bigger.

Another guy wanted to do this:

Legs:
i read this in a muscle mag-its called the "davis set", it's a 6 week routine.
done twice a week, basically the 1st 2 weeks u do 10 sets of max wt non stop. press, rack, drop wt, squat again, no rest. 3 & 4 weeks you do same but go up to 3 reps per set, still no rest. 5 & 6 weeks you do 7 reps a set, and still no rest between sets.
squats: max wt x 10sets
hack squats: 2x20
seated leg curls: 2x20

That is a routine absolutely guaranteed to turn into a puke-fest irregardless of your conditioning level. Never met a single person that could do something like this without puking all over everything and getting so burned out that metabolic and CNS recovery would not be blown for god knows how long.

Another guys leg routine was:

6 sets of 8-10 squat rack
6 " " leg extention
6 " " leg press
6 " " calve raises
6 " " reverse leg curl

After doing 6 sets of squats he should be ready to drop. But wait, there’s more. In fact another 24 sets for legs. He wonders why it’s not working………

As soon as many of you figure out that the BB’ing magazines that are actually supplement catalogs in disguise are not in your best interest, you will be much better off. Nothing like selling supplements to a constantly frustrated readership.

Iron Addict
 
Good post. 'ya gotta feel bad for some people; they assume that a routine must be at least decent if it is in some big magzine.

I don't want to put down the guys that asked about these routines. They asked the big guys what they thought. That's good. Now if they do these routines anyway, well then, all the luck to them.
 
It's absolutely not their fualt. I know, I used to do dumbass routines like that and never grew. The BB'ing comic books are to blame. They should post a disclaimer with each issue that most of the stuff conatined in them will NOT work for the average trainee.

IA
 
iron addict said:
One guy wanted advice on a 12 hour arm program. Guaranteed to add mass to your arms in one workout. I am familiar with these and they are……bullshit.

Peary Rader the original owner of Ironman Magazine, and old schooler to say the least. Put 3/16" on my arms overnight, kept 1/8" permanently.

RIP
 
Mudge said:
Peary Rader the original owner of Ironman Magazine, and old schooler to say the least. Put 3/16" on my arms overnight, kept 1/8" permanently.

RIP

I'm well aware Peary was the one to bring it to the public eye. 3/16 overnight--sure. 1/8th permanently--yeah, like you can really discern 1/8th of an inch. Most peoples arms vary more than that over the course of a weeks time due to water and nutrient levels.

IA
 
no way dude i did that 12 hour won but i raised the intensity level and made it a 24 hour arm workout Bi's Only, i got mad guns now.

















:p
 
mranak said:
You must not have done it right I guess, because that routine is supposed to add 3/4" to your arms:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/becker8.htm

And it is posted on bodybuilding.com, so you know it must work if you do it right.

"Up to," and it is very difficult for me to change anything on my body without weight shift.

IA my man, with all due respect I can discern 1/8" with a tape measure very, VERY well. I measure myself 3x in the morning on the same scale just to be sure, that if it is off by .5 pounds at any time I average out the numbers. When I measure I do the same, with at least 2 measures of the waist and the arm, I'm damn good at it by now.

I weigh and measure after going to the bathroom and before any nutrient consumption, it may sound ridiculous to some and thats completely fine - its a science to me and I've been doing it this way for a long time. If something changes on my body I find out about it very quickly.

I can tell you how over 3 years ago my first cycle changed me faster than anything in my life, and I can tell you how creatine despite my testing it to death - still doesn't do a damned thing for me. :( I have logs of measurements and training going back to sometime into the 1990s.

1/8" with no weight gain? Damned right I noticed it, my body is stubborn as hell. I remember one night a couple weeks ago I lost almost 1/4" on my waist, while having pizza (50mcg T3 in the AM), and walking my dog for 65 minutes that night. In fact I think it made its way to the diet forum. I'm very carb sensative and carbloading with pizza, while noticing the next AM having slightly larger muscles and less on the gut will surely catch a titter from me and find its way into the log.
 
Last edited:
Mudge: I had no idea you were serious. Sorry. :D

I'm personally concerned about putting weight on the bar right now. And that entails things like good form, good diet, good leadership (thanks to pullinbig). That's enough for me to worry about and I'm not about to start measuring my biceps.

But if you've made it into a science and you're telling us what you have really found out, then I'm happy to listen. I trust that you aren't feeding me bullshit, like the magazines.
 
Last edited:
I avoided those kind of routines for years, especially the ones that said stop training everything else for 30 days while you only do arms (that one I think claimed a 1" gain).

It is very well possible, and is my guess, that I gained because I do very little direct arm work. Some people respond well with high volume in terms of hypertrophy, IA has a nice article on his site from Charles Poliquin about the two types of hypertrophy and how strength and size dont neccessarily equate directly.

I just track things, and sometimes things work and sometimes I seem to do everything wrong. My body is very finicky with diet, people recommending 3x bodyweight carb intake for maintenance to me is insanity, eventually I'd reach a maintenance point after I put on a couple inches on my waist!

Being endo/ecto sucks. But because of that, and because of having lifted for years, my changes are very slow. I have gone up to 1.5g test for 6 weeks just to "test" things, so I've plained Duchaine with myself just a bit. I can tell you that training and diet affect me more than just upping the dose, I was pleased and dissapointed at the same time to discover that.

We all have to find what works for us, thats why people still tweak things after 20 years of training/dieting. This is also why almost everyone you see in the gym that started this year, will either look exactly the same next year or will plain stop going. This is a lifetime of learning, not something most anyone picks up overnight unless they are genetically gifted and/or have all the right contacts and the serious desire to learn.

Anywho, no book from me, carry on.

I dont see 1/8" in the mirror really, but when I see it on the tape I check and check again, and I make a mental note of it.
 
Mudge,

If you are weiging yourself before and after taking a dump to see how much "weight" you shit out, you have WAY too much time on your hands. Getting on the scale more than 3 times a week is mental masturbation. NOTHING muscle wise changes every other day. You are measuring water levels which if you like that sort of thing is fine to do, but it really doesn't tell you much.

Seems to me all you need to do is that arm WO 8 more times and your arms will be an inch bigger--what a deal. Have to try that sometime.....wait a minute, I did in the late 80's, gained about 3/8 inch by the next day......nothing permant though.

I am not doubting you though, but your response to that is not likely to be reproduced by most people.

IA
 
Yeah, the explanation I heard was simply that it was irritation of the muscle tissue.

I weigh myself daily just to keep track of things, when I diet down I lose up to .5 pounds a day and I just like to know whats doing instead of finding out too late. Water or not, I try to hold onto as much LBM as possible because I can lose 1/4" damned fast and it is not easy to get back without gaining fat back. :shrug:

If I can keep the water inside the muscle, and off of my stomach, its all good! Therein lies the challenge :(
 
i weigh myself every day too, but its just part of the routine... shower, shave, step on the scale while im brushing my teeth... i dont think its a bad thing, its incentive to pack in my meals....
 
Back
Top