“I’ll have a chunky monkey,” I told the girl behind the counter. My workout partner Nick said he’d have the same. Thirty grams of protein, two bananas, and a whack of peanut butter in a whole milk base. Mass gains were only a shake away. As usual, it was time for Nick and me to talk training.
Nick had the post-workout hunger pains, but I started into him before he got his shake anyway. “Why are muscle magazines so dead wrong about training and nutrition?”
Agitated but relenting, he started in, “Because a lot of the magazines use ghostwriters. The guys don’t actually ever do these programs. They certainly don’t write them.”
I had only recently heard about ghostwriting. Apparently, many famous people don’t write their own books or articles. They hire it out.
Nick continued. “They’re just kind of throwing together what comes to their head. Many of these things you read aren’t what the pro’s actually do. Not that it’s all bad. Some magazines actually do have pretty decent stuff. But most are completely right out there. Honestly, you need to have a filter going when you’re reading through these magazines.”
I knew Nick did some writing for the magazines, and this topic seemed to be hitting a nerve. He was usually a little sedate after our workouts. Low blood sugar and all. But he kept ranting.
“If the guy they’re writing the program about is 8% body fat and 350 pounds, it’s not the program for a 150-pound guy wanting to build muscle.
Even if the program is exactly what the pro is doing, it’s not appropriate for what a teen needs to build that muscle. Especially if they’re not using steroids. And that’s where a lot of the problems start with the muscle magazines.”
Nick flipped his ratty lifting wraps back and forth before continuing on.
“There’s actually a decent amount of good information in some magazines. Sure, it’s repetitive, and some of it’s not quite right, but you know there is some good information. You’ve just got to kind of filter it.”
He was close to bursting by the time the lady behind the counter finally put his shake in front of him. He didn’t say thank you, he just scowled and watched her walk back to the blender.
I usually like to play antagonist with Nick, but I agreed with him on this one.
“I’m going to see if we kind of gel on this one Nick. Which of the magazines do you think are actually decent? I know which one I’ve read over the years. They’re all getting washed out now. But I remember maybe fifteen years ago, there was one mag I particularly liked. It was a mainstream magazine, but it always had some pretty good stuff. Have you found one or even a couple that you like?
Nick glanced over at the waiting area where the table with the magazines where thrown about. I say it was a waiting area, but it was a couch with chewed gum pushed into the stained canvas couch. I could see pondering.
“You know, got to be honest. I haven’t even bought a muscle magazine other than the ones I’ve written articles in, in quite a long time. Muscle Media was one of the good ones about ten years ago.
In the past I had good luck with some Iron Man stuff. And Muscle Development has some good stuff in there now and again.”
I nodded in agreement and added my two cents. “I used to like Muscular Development when it first came out. Before it started getting so steroid-based. Iron Man has always done well for me. But yes, I haven’t picked up any muscle magazines since I got out of the army. They’ve gotten too rehashed hey?”
Nick had a brain freeze but fought bravely. “Rehashed, and they’re basically big supplement catalogs. I mean, that’s pretty much the nuts and bolts of it. That’s how they pay the bills. The articles are there just to fill out the space between supplement ads.”
“Seriously?” I was surprised that it was that blatant.
“Totally serious. I know guys in the business; some have been pretty high up in some of these magazines. That’s pretty much what it’s all about. How many ways can you tell people how to train arms month after month?”
I had to agree with him because I saw it happen when MuscleTech came out. Suddenly, the magazines had MuscleTech ads after every article. Even some of the articles were about MuscleTech.
I kept listening as Nick spit the truth. “When they first came out, they had their testosterone precursors and just the Cell Tech. It was the bare-bones stuff but it worked. I mean that stuff was actually kicking at the time. Then it started getting pretty crazy, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
I guess for Nick, the dark side of the fitness information business was disheartening. I jumped in to summarize.
“So articles come from ghostwriters. And a lot of the nutrition and training stuff would work for me if I was on the same amount of pharmaceuticals. I mean, I could eat Big Macs all day if I was cranking steroids. Does that sum it up?”
“Yes Ray, that’s about it. There’s good information, but yes, you’ve got to filter through it a lot. Don’t just blindly trust the info because it’s in a magazine.”
I patted Nick on the back. “I have to jet man. Good chat. Next time, I want to talk to you about calf training,” I said, frowning down at my twig calves.”
Nick just grunted, which was his normal goodbye.
Nick had massive calves, and I hated him for it. Him and his genetically gifted parents.
Before You Go
Stay tuned for the next conversation with Nick on building massive calves.
I’ll link it here when posted.
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Talk to you soon
– Ray