The older you get the more stupid bodybuilders and bodybuilding seems

[TheShape.]

I'm only 21 and I've lost interest after 4 years. It's just a terrible life choice when you have to eat until you're sick, sticking needles in your ass, and in the gym 24/7. I'd rather just be decently strong and good looking. Bodybuilding died after Haneys reign.

[LurkerNoMore]

There was a MD left behind on my last flight and the flight attendant brought it to me as she thought I would like to read it.  It was last month (or this months???  the one with Wolf and Branch leg training)... first thing I noticed is how thin it was.  Used to be like a damn phone book, now it is barely thicker than a People Magazine. 

Of course, they had those dazzling articles and tidbits in the front that we all can't live without and have no clue about these "secrets" otherwise.

Deca may interfere with testosterone production.

Viagra and Cialis may be used for the treatment of ED.

Oral steroids found to be harmful to the liver.

I mean... literally those are the articles in there at the front of the mag.  Then you had the Wolf/Branch training article.  Wolf with his mutilated calf that looks all torn to hell and gross.  Branch with his whole body looking torn to hell and gross.

And can someone explain to me in these training article photos why the spotter is screaming and straining more than the person under the weight???

[Kwon_2]

I cringe that I used to buy muscle and fitness when I was 17, bodybuilders I was impressed by now look like Oompa Loompas wearing fat suits when in clothing.Prancing around in a thong for a plastic trophy while taking years of life off your vital organs.Madness.

We didn't know as much at 17.

At 17 we were inspired by the articles and followed the routines in the mags, without any knowledge whatsoever of what it takes to stand on stage, or the G4P-scene and how to afford to look like that or what was needed/required.

The more you started to learn about the scene and the more you knew, the more you saw it in a negative light.

Muscles that looked "cool" back in the teens now look weird when closing in on 50.
Branch Warren is a very good example of that.

[theworm]

Maybe we are all clinically depressed...



If BB could stick to the 1970s. It would be much much better

[YngiweRhoads]

Exactly.

As you get much older (40's, 50's & 60's), you then start to appreciate classic bodybuilding (think guys like Frank Zane). You also start to appreciate the importance of a strict diet, not just to look physically better, but to also have some form of longevity. Your workouts become better (stricter form and slow movements to truly work the muscle, as opposed to momentum and ego lifting).

Bodybuilding today has become a fucking mess. Those guys are racing against each other to see who can take the most amount of drugs, coupled with injecting of oil, just to possibly edge each other out during a single night or two.

Bodybuilding has always had a cult following. I couldn't be caught dead walking around the streets with Flex or MD magazine. It looks pathetic imo and having to explain to others what my fascination is with the "sport" would be almost impossible to do.

"1"

Spot on.

[Man of Steel]

Today I don't know half of the pros and I don't really know anyone in Nationals/USAs.  Don't even know there is a Nationals or USAs?

I don't even know some of the top 5 in the Olympia.

Begs the question:  Why are you still on this board?

Have been for years.  Religious discussion.  Other non bb'ing talk.  That's about it.  I know more about fitness folks on youtube than I do the IFBB.

[wes]

I`m doing one more contest,then I`m finito.


Way too many drugs, and it just seems stupid to me now but I want to win the NABBA NAts in my age group and get a NABBA pro card.

Then it`s just enjoyable workouts for health and to look good.

The sport has gone to shit!!

[drkaje]

^ Is it a sport?

[Never1AShow]

No idea why, but this background seemed appropriate when I read this.

This is fucking awesome, didn't see it before.  Thanks

[SF1900]

I'm only 21 and I've lost interest after 4 years. It's just a terrible life choice when you have to eat until you're sick, sticking needles in your ass, and in the gym 24/7. I'd rather just be decently strong and good looking. Bodybuilding died after Haneys reign.

I disagree with this assessment. It was still going strong with the likes of Yates, Levrone, Ray, El Sonbaty, Priest, Coleman, Wheeler, Cormier etc. Once these guys retired, bodybuilding died.

[calfzilla]

I disagree with this assessment. It was still going strong with the likes of Yates, Levrone, Ray, El Sonbaty, Priest, Coleman, Wheeler, Cormier etc. Once these guys returned, bodybuilding died.

Agreed 100%. It is officially dead now.

[Fortress]

Don't get me started.

I was a total bodybuilding knobjob.

Now all I care about is training for strength.

Looking back, I was always about the training. Plus, I always preferred how powerlifters like Kaz looked compared to diced physique guys like Gaspari.

[Thong Maniac]

not gonna front, but i still do get jealous when ur hanging with the girl and friends on vacation at ibiza and the big shredded tren guys at age 25 walk by and all thr girls break their neck. ive always wanted to be that guy, but it wasnt in thr cards i guess. i hung into that dream well into late twenties probably. Early thirties now and i got other interests and hobbies. but deep down that insecurity is still there a little bit, where i want that "look", but yeah when i see old guys still hard at work juicing and in the gym 7 days a week, part of me still thinks its cool, but that admiration dies just a bit every day, which i think is good

[Thong Maniac]

Don't get me started.

I was a total bodybuilding knobjob.

Now all I care about is training for strength.

Looking back, I was always about the training. Plus, I always preferred how powerlifters like Kaz looked compared to diced physique guys like Gaspari.

im doing the strength thing now too. reverse pyramiding and logging my reps /weight. 3 days a week, and just compound lifts (like ill just do bench on chest day). it feels good actually. do you notice your shape has changed for the better or do you not look as good?

[Fortress]

im doing the strength thing now too. reverse pyramiding and logging my reps /weight. 3 days a week, and just compound lifts (like ill just do bench on chest day). it feels good actually. do you notice your shape has changed for the better or do you not look as good?

Still progressing in mass. Not that that's my goal. But even as a competitive bodybuilder, I was a power-bodybuilder.

Thirty-one years on, no stopping, and I'm a reasonably-"padded" 280 pounds.

I'm now 46 and as strong and powerful as ever. Everything's built around squat, bench and deadlift. I expect world-beating numbers in my 50s.

Decades drug-free, as an aside.

[Dave D]

The magice faded for me at the Arnold classic in 08. My boy and I are sitting in the balcony watching prejudging chatting with the guys next to us, when Kai walks out and these guys all stop and start screaming GO KAI, SHOW EM KAI, YEAH!!!!

My boy and I look at one another like wtf is going on (and at this point this was like our 4th year going to prejudging). The rest of the prejudging the group in the balcony goes nuts for their favorite bodybuilders.

As we're leaving the show we both agreed this was probably the last one we would attend.

It was odd because I'm sure the behavior was normal, we've all yelled at sporting events, but for whatever reason the enthusiasm displayed that day when men were posing on stage killed my love affair.

[nzmusclemonster]

These days I only go to the gym to do core work and stretching.

[DroppingPlates]

Not just the noble art of bodybuilding..

[Earl1972]

it only seems stupid now because the physiques suck

i didn't realize it at the time but the sport stopped being cool in 2003

E

[Yamcha]

im doing the strength thing now too. reverse pyramiding and logging my reps /weight. 3 days a week, and just compound lifts (like ill just do bench on chest day). it feels good actually. do you notice your shape has changed for the better or do you not look as good?

and you are worried about calories in veggies??? 

[drkaje]

I find the drug use more ridiculous with age.

[Disco187]

Years ago I use to go to the Barnes & Noble book store and read through muscle mags in the cozy chairs they had there. I look back now and think "Wow how fucking gay was that"...

ahahah yes barnes and nobles , I spent many lunch breaks there doing the same thing

[Colossus_1986]

Competed at my last show in 2011, and despite having trained the most insane, taking the most drugs i've ever taken for a show, and having my best shape to date, I remember doing my mandatory poses and knowing i was only somewhere in the middle of the pack, that the show would be over in a few hours and what the hell was all this for? I knew the answer was not to go back to the drawing board and take more drugs or train harder...because after all you have to ask yourself what for? What will this bring you in the end? Jack shit...

I tell people that guys who are in the top 10 at the olympia sometimes have a secondary income because the revenue from bodybuilding alone  (prize and sponsorship) is a joke... Here I am not even at a national level and i'm ashamed to be doing so much abuse to my body...

The year after my competition I decided to get my gyno fixed with surgery. Two little grape sized lumps came out, and i specifically asked to take a picture of those things and to this day those lumps of gross shit remind me of "what else" could be growing inside. That's a hell of a wake up call in a sense, but it wasn't the only one. You'd have to be blind and retarded to not know this lifestyle is beyond weird, dangerous and never ends well.

One of my good friends is on dialysis 3x a week. (40 yrs old)

Another guy I know won his pro card with his eyes looking sickly and yellow, becasue 6 weeks prior he had been hospitalized for liver toxicity during the prep, but that did not stop him.

Someone else had an abscess drained from his bicep...

And a whole pack of guys who end up in the male-stripping milieu, and become so embarrassed that they fall into taking crystal meth to cope with all the "private sessions" they do with high paying clients. But what's that saying? It's only gay if you want it to be? lol Well it's not gay if it pays the GH i guess....

Lately the realest guy in and around bodybuilding is Luimarco. I enjoy his videos and he knows whats up. Just as soon as he is quick to praise a guys shape at a show, he will make a video to show a suspect lump in his arm or delt, and question what he shoots in there?! It's cool because at least its honest.

At the end of the day, I still train as hard as I can. I realized that you can have a 16-weeks out shape and to 99% of the population you are RIPPED and HUGE... you don't have to torture yourself with excessive dieting and cardio (and drugs) to get the approval of a milieu of a select few in the world of bodybuilding. Especially when it puts you into debt faster than a drug habit, (and likely in a hospital just the same)

[OneMoreRep]

Competed at my last show in 2011, and despite having trained the most insane, taking the most drugs i've ever taken for a show, and having my best shape to date, I remember doing my mandatory poses and knowing i was only somewhere in the middle of the pack, that the show would be over in a few hours and what the hell was all this for? I knew the answer was not to go back to the drawing board and take more drugs or train harder...because after all you have to ask yourself what for? What will this bring you in the end? Jack shit...

I tell people that guys who are in the top 10 at the olympia sometimes have a secondary income because the revenue from bodybuilding alone  (prize and sponsorship) is a joke... Here I am not even at a national level and i'm ashamed to be doing so much abuse to my body...

The year after my competition I decided to get my gyno fixed with surgery. Two little grape sized lumps came out, and i specifically asked to take a picture of those things and to this day those lumps of gross shit remind me of "what else" could be growing inside. That's a hell of a wake up call in a sense, but it wasn't the only one. You'd have to be blind and retarded to not know this lifestyle is beyond weird, dangerous and never ends well.

One of my good friends is on dialysis 3x a week. (40 yrs old)

Another guy I know won his pro card with his eyes looking sickly and yellow, becasue 6 weeks prior he had been hospitalized for liver toxicity during the prep, but that did not stop him.

Someone else had an abscess drained from his bicep...

And a whole pack of guys who end up in the male-stripping milieu, and become so embarrassed that they fall into taking crystal meth to cope with all the "private sessions" they do with high paying clients. But what's that saying? It's only gay if you want it to be? lol Well it's not gay if it pays the GH i guess....

Lately the realest guy in and around bodybuilding is Luimarco. I enjoy his videos and he knows whats up. Just as soon as he is quick to praise a guys shape at a show, he will make a video to show a suspect lump in his arm or delt, and question what he shoots in there?! It's cool because at least its honest.

At the end of the day, I still train as hard as I can. I realized that you can have a 16-weeks out shape and to 99% of the population you are RIPPED and HUGE... you don't have to torture yourself with excessive dieting and cardio (and drugs) to get the approval of a milieu of a select few in the world of bodybuilding. Especially when it puts you into debt faster than a drug habit, (and likely in a hospital just the same)

Fantastic post!

Very well said.

"1"

[njflex]

Fantastic post!

Very well said.

"1"

X2...