This is from Dante (doggcrapp) in a response on Promuscle.com. If you've thought about competing or even have the goal of putting on muscle read this, read it again, memorize it. It doesn't get more basic then this and it's the truth!!!
Because bodybuilders have obsessive compulsive personalities and can never think in the following terms:
a)Dieting down could never be as simple as keeping a semiblance of what made that muscle mass (protein wise) in the diet and thinking "green" (replacing carbohydrates at key times with with spinach, asparagus, broccoli) and filling up hunger pangs with leafage/salads......all the while increasing energy expenditure thru cardio and supplements
Nope, Joe Bodybuilder goes to hell in a hand basket and chucks everything that made him that actual muscle mass and starts dieting on a tuna fish and rice cake diet, disintegrates, loses gobs of precious muscle mass, falls off the wagon and cheats......and pretty much destroys what he made in the off season.
b) Training couldn't be as simple as the thought process of "ok what have the most massive bodybuilders of the last 20 years done to develop that muscle mass?" "What was a common theme?" If you remove the Ultra genetically elite from the equation who could grow off of lifting a garbage can and whose genetics are 10x more than the average bodybuilder (Dillett, Wheeler)......Hmmmm it seems the ultra massive were all extremely powerful (Yates, Coleman, Francois, Kovacs, Dennis James, Chris Cormier) and they accomplished that thru the years. We all know they didn't start out inclining 405lbs so they were all progressive in their training.....using heavier and heavier poundage (safely) over the years.....that's it "progression X time"
Nope not for Joe Bodybuilder-----there has got to be a secret. There must be some kind of hidden holy grail training that is going to transfer them into superstar status within 6 months.....they just got to find out what it is. So they jump from training routine to training routine (sometimes monthly) buying into the latest big words a bodybuilder author who has never made it over 172lbs can throw at them from his thesaurus. Supersets, Drop sets, Giant sets, psycho training, Wild Monkey Balls training, East Hungarian Ballistic pre World War II training....there has got to be a secret! Maybe if I train for 8 hours! Maybe if i start out with a regular weight and keep doing 85 drop sets until im lifting with the pink 2.5 lb dumbells before dropping them, that will be the key! Whats Flex magazine say this month, I'll switch from what I was doing from Flex magazine LAST month!
c) Gaining weight could never be as easy as finding a healthy productive diet that works for you (bodybuilders always fall into modes when eating....if you give them a couple rules to abide by, within a couple weeks they will be eating the same things usually Monday thou Friday (workdays) and a little bit differently on weekends. But mark it down bodybuilders are creatures of habit and will probably be eating the same things every single day. So to keep it simple to make them gain weight you just add where things need to be added. Two tablespoons of all natural peanut butter here, 1 tablespoon of olive oil there, one more scoop of waxy maize or protein powder there. It really doesn't take much to get a guy gaining again when he plateaus....just a little addition here and there is all it takes especially at key meals.
Nope Joe Bodybuilder wont have that. Whats his thoughts? "I am obsessive compulsive and im chucking my regular off season diet (which could be made golden with just a few tweaks) and I'll eat 8000-10,000 calories instead!!!!" So Joe bodybuilder instead of using deductive reasoning and using a little scotch tape to fix problems, takes a sledgehammer to it and tries to put it back together with superglue, dirt and spit. Eight months later Joe bodybuilder is obese, gained 5lbs of fat to every 1/2lb of muscle he put on and is miserable. In which he comes out on a message board and blames not only the diet (no he wont say "Im an idiot" he will blame the diet) but also say its because he isn't on the magical stack the pro's are on.....otherwise it would of worked.
MUST READ FOR BODYBUILDERS
Sounds like me from time to time! lol
Some define themselves by their education or their career...Others define themselves by their salaries and material acquisitions...but whatever it is, I choose to define myself by my passions
The man certainly has a way with words. I'm sure we have all been Joe Bodybuilder, and some still are. Thanks for posting that Joe.
i think im joe bodybuilder :( haha joe great post bro!
ON/ABB Sponsored Athlete
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Hey, but what about all those books and fitness mag articles that talk about putting on 10 lbs of muscle in a month? :-)
I love that great post thanks joe!!!!lol!!
Recognize that life is in constant motion and every change happens for a reason.When you see boundries as opportunities,the world becomes a limitless place.
Man, if we all came with some type of instruction manual, or a troubleshooting page if this or that happens. We would all be huge and ripped.
Sean Royer
ABB/ON Athlete
www.americanbodybuilding.com
www.optimumnutrition.com
ABB/ON Athlete
www.americanbodybuilding.com
www.optimumnutrition.com

