Most bodybuilders are fools - they think they know everything

[Vince B]

You know, before I went to university I knew I could be a doctor, architect, lawyer, engineer or anything I desired. What did I end up studying? Philosophy! Everyone is an expert in philosophy! I had one fool tell me that he had a philosophy, too. "What is your philosophy, Armando?" "Well, he said, when I eat, I eat and when I sleep, I sleep!" Brilliant for sure, because who can refute that? The trouble is that philosophy is completely empty and useless.

So I didn't pursue a career in philosophy but became a PE teacher. Then a gym owner. Well, lo and behold, everyone was an expert in exercise and nutrition. The two fields I specialized in and no one recognizes my training and long experience. Even here on Getbig everyone is an expert. I well remember telling Milos Sarcev that I could help him get bigger triceps. Well, that didn't go over well and he was quite annoyed at me. He said that he has tried everything and nothing worked. Well, I told him, he hasn't tried what I advocate. Anyway, we eventually sorted that out but I never did get to explain what I had in mind. I offered to help Luke Wood build his arms bigger but he never showed up at my gym to see what I could do for him. I guess he figured if Milos couldn't get them bigger than no one else could.

Today I saw a guy who was definitely a bodybuilder. I talked to him because he came into a place that I was at. I told him he was a bodybuilder and he told me he was competing soon. I noticed the typical weak arms in that depleted state and told him to come and see me because I could help him get bigger triceps. He told me point blank he didn't want my help! I wasn't charging him. I had nothing to gain. I couldn't believe he said that. What is it with muscleheads? Most are too darn thick to even know what is good advice and what is nonsense. I have 57 years experience and these guys aren't interested in what I have to say. Amazing and very disappointing.

That is why I say most bodybuilders are fools. I don't have to mention stuff like the belief that free weights are better than machines. Nor do I have to tell them that they are ingesting way too much protein. Nope, they already know everything.

[The True Adonis]

You know, before I went to university I knew I could be a doctor, architect, lawyer, engineer or anything I desired. What did I end up studying? Philosophy! Everyone is an expert in philosophy! I had one fool tell me that he had a philosophy, too. "What is your philosophy, Armando?" "Well, he said, when I eat, I eat and when I sleep, I sleep!" Brilliant for sure, because who can refute that? The trouble is that philosophy is completely empty and useless.

So I didn't pursue a career in philosophy but became a PE teacher. Then a gym owner. Well, lo and behold, everyone was an expert in exercise and nutrition. The two fields I specialized in and no one recognizes my training and long experience. Even here on Getbig everyone is an expert. I well remember telling Milos Sarcev that I could help him get bigger triceps. Well, that didn't go over well and he was quite annoyed at me. He said that he has tried everything and nothing worked. Well, I told him, he hasn't tried what I advocate. Anyway, we eventually sorted that out but I never did get to explain what I had in mind. I offered to help Luke Wood build his arms bigger but he never showed up at my gym to see what I could do for him. I guess he figured if Milos couldn't get them bigger than no one else could.

Today I saw a guy who was definitely a bodybuilder. I talked to him because he came into a place that I was at. I told him he was a bodybuilder and he told me he was competing soon. I noticed the typical weak arms in that depleted state and told him to come and see me because I could help him get bigger triceps. He told me point blank he didn't want my help! I wasn't charging him. I had nothing to gain. I couldn't believe he said that. What is it with muscleheads? Most are too darn thick to even know what is good advice and what is nonsense. I have 57 years experience and these guys aren't interested in what I have to say. Amazing and very disappointing.

That is why I say most bodybuilders are fools. I don't have to mention stuff like the belief that free weights are better than machines. Nor do I have to tell them that they are ingesting way too much protein. Nope, they already know everything.

He is a fool.  I would have loved to train at your gym with some of your unique machines.

Vince, what was your training and diet like when you were in your top form and would you still do the same if you could have done it all over again?

[WalterWhite]

I agree with TTA and would have a plethora of questions for you. I respect your place in bodybuilding history and also believe you unequivocally earned your forum stars.

[the trainer]

I think vince with his experience does have a lot of knowledge to share maybe he should train a getbigger virtually so people can see what he is able to do.

[BAST]

You know, before I went to university I knew I could be a doctor, architect, lawyer, engineer or anything I desired. What did I end up studying? Philosophy! Everyone is an expert in philosophy! I had one fool tell me that he had a philosophy, too. "What is your philosophy, Armando?" "Well, he said, when I eat, I eat and when I sleep, I sleep!" Brilliant for sure, because who can refute that? The trouble is that philosophy is completely empty and useless.

So I didn't pursue a career in philosophy but became a PE teacher. Then a gym owner. Well, lo and behold, everyone was an expert in exercise and nutrition. The two fields I specialized in and no one recognizes my training and long experience. Even here on Getbig everyone is an expert. I well remember telling Milos Sarcev that I could help him get bigger triceps. Well, that didn't go over well and he was quite annoyed at me. He said that he has tried everything and nothing worked. Well, I told him, he hasn't tried what I advocate. Anyway, we eventually sorted that out but I never did get to explain what I had in mind. I offered to help Luke Wood build his arms bigger but he never showed up at my gym to see what I could do for him. I guess he figured if Milos couldn't get them bigger than no one else could.

Today I saw a guy who was definitely a bodybuilder. I talked to him because he came into a place that I was at. I told him he was a bodybuilder and he told me he was competing soon. I noticed the typical weak arms in that depleted state and told him to come and see me because I could help him get bigger triceps. He told me point blank he didn't want my help! I wasn't charging him. I had nothing to gain. I couldn't believe he said that. What is it with muscleheads? Most are too darn thick to even know what is good advice and what is nonsense. I have 57 years experience and these guys aren't interested in what I have to say. Amazing and very disappointing.

That is why I say most bodybuilders are fools. I don't have to mention stuff like the belief that free weights are better than machines. Nor do I have to tell them that they are ingesting way too much protein. Nope, they already know everything.

What would you have had Milos do to get his triceps bigger?

[trapz101]

maybe they just don't want to die under the machine of your 'creation'

[polychronopolous]

I've always stated that if Vince Basile truly had the forum to teach the upper level competitors of bodybuilding his theories of hypertrophy then drugs in this sport would largely be a thing of the past within the next 5 years or so.

[lyquid]

If your such.a great teacher u can teach us through telling us.

I'm.being serious I'd like to know some.things. mainly arms. Maybe some back too.

U can post links to videos to show depth of squat or drawings etc or just use words. Is really like to hear. But whenever someone ask u never go into detail.

U instead always say how u offered to bring this up for free n help this guy but u never tell us how.

Id like to try a protocol myself.

[Pet shop boys]

- "I walked out from Bodybuilding alive....cant say I'm a fool "



WoooSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Teutonic Knight]

Vince, can U give us 5-10 names of yours pupils who where at the least Mr.Australia winners since 1975  
Name any professional sport club/organization in Australia which employed U as mr.muscle coach.
Have U ever work for the Australian Institute of Sports 
OBW, U a not the only 1 gym owner (or co-owner) on this site.

[Hulkotron]

I have the full library of Vince's publications.

[Antonio fella]

[Vince B]

He is a fool.  I would have loved to train at your gym with some of your unique machines.

Vince, what was your training and diet like when you were in your top form and would you still do the same if you could have done it all over again?

TA, I would train vastly differently now. Larry Scott contributed the most to hypertrophy training in the sixties. That was a brutally painful way to train. Especially if you were drug free. Most of us didn't get maximum size. Arms stopped at about 17 1/2" cold. Few guys in those days had legitimate 18 inch arms. I could pump mine to 18 3/4 but they still weren't 18 cold even off season. Not that we called our bulking up that.

The breakthrough for me came in 1998 or 99 when I tried to get my arms larger than ever. I succeeded but encountered injuries in elbows and achilles tendons. My arms were finally 18 inches cold and calves about 18 1/4. Darn those injuries. Now I know better and don't have elbows on pads. Neither do I do any ballistic heel raises for calves.

What I had to discover.....for myself was a feedback mechanism that accompanied rapid hypertrophy. Well, it will be rapid if you eat enough food. Many young guys don't consume enough calories and therefore don't grow much bigger. When you think about it most of the big guys in all gyms are looking the same. Plateaus hit all of us sooner or later. Well, that is what we all thought. We all knew that if we haven't trained for a while or did something different or unusual we ended up sore the next few days. I embraced that phenomenon and wondered what would happen if I employed it for building larger muscles. How come we don't get very sore after we get accustomed to training? Why doesn't DOMS appear? Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. We even came up with strategies to avoid getting DOMS. By doing so we missed what I consider to be the most important factor in hypertrophy training....maximum hypertrophy training, that is.

Take biceps. When was the last time you experienced DOMS after training biceps? Most guys almost never get them sore. Well, consider this, what if you trained your biceps in a fashion that resulted in DOMS for several days? My belief is those biceps would immediately grow bigger and you could measure the difference with a tape. Perhaps 1/10th of an inch in one day. Retrain the biceps every 3rd day for 30 days and you should gain an inch in size. Well, you will if you include DOMS training for your triceps. I advise doing super sets for biceps followed by triceps. The key here is to warm up thoroughly taking each set to the limit. 40 or more reps of the first set and then add a plate and continue. When you reach a weight that allows only 20 reps then stay at that weight and try to do another 5 or 6 sets with the same weight. If you try to do sets of 10 reps two things happen. After the third set you won't be able to do as many reps. You will be down to something like 70%. 6 or 7 reps are not enough for hypertrophy because you start cheating and you fail to get a maximum pump. So if you start your final effective sets at 20 reps you will be down to 12 or 14 reps soon enough but will always be over 10 reps. Keeping the reps about 15 helps to pump up the muscle and that is important for hypertrophy. Larry Scott discovered that if he could pump his arms bigger than ever he would grow them. So we can accept that this is true because Larry found out the hard way about 50 years ago. I agree with that finding. Not just any old pumping but doing so with sufficiently heavy resistances. It is the set after set after set with a heavy enough resistance that induces hypertrophy. You can reduce this to a time under tension formula. The time accumulates over those final 6 sets and the intensity is sufficient to induce hypertrophy.

There are better exercises that are effective. However, effectiveness has to be tempered by safety considerations. The muscles will grow rapidly but connective tissue is still vulnerable. Trying to put an inch on the arms in a short time is not impossible but it can be dangerous. DOMS training is best for perhaps a couple of weeks then take a break and train something else in that fashion. The muscles won't shrink if you work nearby muscles. After two weeks hit the arms again for another two weeks. You really have to be safe because once damage to connective tissue occurs it seems to persist....perhaps for years and even decades. You have to avoid tearing muscles at all costs. Never to heavy deadlifts or anything else to demonstrate strength. 10 reps should be the minimum for bodybuilders. Doing less reps can help you get stronger, etc., but this really is ego training to impress others. Forget seeing how much you can bench and squat. Don't do powerlifting or arm wrestling. Both are too dangerous for bodybuilders.

One of the things that amuses me is that bodybuilders absolutely believe they must train all muscles each week or those muscles not trained will atrophy. This is not true but that is what just about everyone believes. When I was doing only arms for a month my whole upper body grew. I found this out by accident. When you think about it you cannot train arms hard and not recruit adjoining muscles. You cannot train back without training arms. What most muscleheads don't realize is that they do way too much and this prevents hypertrophy. It is much better targetting one or two muscle groups at a time. Do triceps and lat pulldowns to the top of the chest. Narrow grip and strict. Your whole upper body will grow. No worries about that at all.


Photo below taken in Kamloops, BC, in summer of 1969. No steroids what so ever. My Dad was an amazing guy. He grew up in Southern Italy and had poor nutrition. He was only 5-2.

[Vince B]

Just for the record. There are some blokes on Getbig that I will not respond to...ever again. One of those nasty blokes lives in Sydney. They can ask all they like but I will never reply or react to them.

[ESFitness]

You know, before I went to university I knew I could be a doctor, architect, lawyer, engineer or anything I desired. What did I end up studying? Philosophy! Everyone is an expert in philosophy! I had one fool tell me that he had a philosophy, too. "What is your philosophy, Armando?" "Well, he said, when I eat, I eat and when I sleep, I sleep!" Brilliant for sure, because who can refute that? The trouble is that philosophy is completely empty and useless.

So I didn't pursue a career in philosophy but became a PE teacher. Then a gym owner. Well, lo and behold, everyone was an expert in exercise and nutrition. The two fields I specialized in and no one recognizes my training and long experience. Even here on Getbig everyone is an expert. I well remember telling Milos Sarcev that I could help him get bigger triceps. Well, that didn't go over well and he was quite annoyed at me. He said that he has tried everything and nothing worked. Well, I told him, he hasn't tried what I advocate. Anyway, we eventually sorted that out but I never did get to explain what I had in mind. I offered to help Luke Wood build his arms bigger but he never showed up at my gym to see what I could do for him. I guess he figured if Milos couldn't get them bigger than no one else could.

Today I saw a guy who was definitely a bodybuilder. I talked to him because he came into a place that I was at. I told him he was a bodybuilder and he told me he was competing soon. I noticed the typical weak arms in that depleted state and told him to come and see me because I could help him get bigger triceps. He told me point blank he didn't want my help! I wasn't charging him. I had nothing to gain. I couldn't believe he said that. What is it with muscleheads? Most are too darn thick to even know what is good advice and what is nonsense. I have 57 years experience and these guys aren't interested in what I have to say. Amazing and very disappointing.

That is why I say most bodybuilders are fools. I don't have to mention stuff like the belief that free weights are better than machines. Nor do I have to tell them that they are ingesting way too much protein. Nope, they already know everything.

nobody gives a shit what you say you can do.

why?

because most humans have eyes and ears.

we LOOK at you and see you LOOK like a pile of dogshit.

what would you do if some guy who lives in a wooden shed, offers advice on building your dream home? you'd laugh in his face.

why? because it's insulting that somebody like you.. somebody who looks like you.. would think they (you) can help anybody with bodybuilding.

if you actually LOOKED the part, you'd have people ASKING for your help, instead of having to go around looking for people who will waste 45seconds of their lives to listen to you tell them how good you are, despite looking like a fat, old pedophile.

[ESFitness]

Photo below taken in Kamloops, BC, in summer of 1969. No steroids what so ever. My Dad was an amazing guy. He grew up in Southern Italy and had poor nutrition. He was only 5-2.

I'd hope "no steroids" would be painfully obvious to most people with an IQ greater than their age.

[Vince B]

I am posting here for Adam and a few other serious guys who want to learn what I have to say. For the know-it-all muscleheads why even post if you haven't anything constructive to add.

[mr.turbo]

looking good

so long story short the discovery was high volume training for arms

[NordicNerd]

looking good

so long story short the discovery was high volume training for arms

You missed at least half of what he wrote. High volume training was not the same as high-rep training....

NN

[Julio Ceasar]

Just because your are old dosent mean you are clever and know. How do u know that u know? Stupid guys also get older. Some people think they know and should learn others. I totlly recejt people who try to be a volontair educator for others. But I like to talk to people who dosent talk very much but achive great things.

[Vince B]

Just because your are old dosent mean you are clever and know. How do u know that u know? Stupid guys also get older. Some people think they know and should learn others. I totlly recejt people who try to be a volontair educator for others. But I like to talk to people who dosent talk very much but achive great things.

It takes a clever person to fathom what you are getting at. I know what I know from the results. It works.

[Vince B]

looking good

so long story short the discovery was high volume training for arms

I wonder why I bother trying to explain a theory. If that is all you got out of what I wrote then we are both wasting our time.

[oldtimer1]

Bodybuilding attracts the insecure. It's a sub culture of a sport. In this subculture you see what can only be described as a bunch of misfits. In order to feel good about them self they have to put down others.

How much of lunatic do you have to be to risk health to inject drugs bought from a drug dealer in order to look like a man?  It's all temporary. These guys that think they are so knowledgeable about training would never post a picture 6 months clean. They know the truth but they lie to them self. It's rationalization.

Who spends thousands of dollars for a decade of trying to look buff? So they can walk the mall to impress the simpletons who are impressed with steroid physiques? In the end due to health, finance or arrest they go off. Then they spend their life with a bent up picture in their wallet of how they use to look. Any guy who has been around this game long enough knows how many times this story is repeated.

So are most bodybuilders fools? So many are. They spend all their young lives pursuing the drug life style when they should have been pursuing a career. Then they find them self 40 years old with two decades of cycling on and off doing the yo yo of muscles on and muscles off.

This site makes me laugh but it also makes me sad seeing the character of  many members who claim to be interested in weight training. They really show case what many call generation nothing. A generation of under achievers who believe some one is responsible for their lot in life and look to the government to make it right.

[Pet shop boys]

I am posting here for Adam and a few other serious guys who want to learn what I have to say. For the know-it-all muscleheads why even post if you haven't anything constructive to add.

Great pic  thanks for posting it...  I always read your threads.




WoooSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[ForgottenMuscle]

Hello Vince,

A thin line indeed between having to train causing just enough microtrauma, resulting in DOMS , and having workouts resulting in connective tissue injuries/inflammation.

Would like to know your opinion on whether it is necessary to keep increasing the load, especially when you mention waiting longer before targetting specific muscle group again. Is Repeated Bout Effect less important in your described way of training?

Thanks,

André, The Hague, Netherlands.