Holy shit guys - yeah, I related this post to MY LIFE, because obviously as I have gotten older and family/children has displaced almost all/any interest I had in bodybuilding, which I now see was for the best.
The only regret I have was posting the photo from the news with me and Atlas Stone - but I posted that because it was just an example similar to how people becoming addicted to plastic trophies in bodybuilding. Yeah, it kind of does get addicting to have a growing collection of trophies in my weight class, and to get local news coverage. So I can't complain when pro bodybuilders do it - but there is a difference between the local level, and the much more heavily juice-dependent professional level. And that includes impact on health. That's my point.
The problem is when pro bodybuilders outside of the top 10 at the Olympia who are making peanuts for money risk their health and lifespan for the same rewards. I can understand why Phil Heath and Flex Lewis do it, but is bodybuilding at the highest level today really worth it? More and more we are going to see people come out with stories regretting it. I think the new divisions are a reflection of the growing frustration of a lot of men not wanting to juice to the max, but still wanting to compete. I think the new divisions are a good idea, even though they do sort of water down what it means to be a "pro".
I'm happy that I never pushed my body further than just doing this at the lower level. You can still have fun just competing locally and lifting weights and being involved in moderation with great personal results and none of the irreversible long term damage to your cardiovascular system, central nervous system, and organ integrity in general.
Comparisons to Howard, come on 
I do plan to have as many ex-wives as Howard, but Howard has literally posted the exact same post since 2011, if not earlier, LOL. If you have read one of his threads, you have read them all. His ONE post where he has "Uncle Rico Syndrome" and relives his glory days is actually a good thread - it's just that he's posted it literally dozens of times. Although I actually like Howard. I just think it's strange that he doesn't realize he is posting the same thread over and over again, LOL.
Coach is Back! - Don't you get enough flak on here to not be trashing other members? Or is it this go along to get along mentality to try to get you board credibility? Notice I have NOT been trashing anyone on this board, despite the popularity you acquire for doing so, because I see no reason to be cruel to other members just to be part of the club. It's not cool. I sort of wish this board went in the direction of Nether Animal's posts - just simple on-topic posts about professional bodybuilding and commentary from a variety of members.
Pellius - You were always cool with me so I have no idea why you feel the need to trash me. Yeah, I related this post to myself - BIG DEAL. I'm giving an example of how my own life experience guided me away from bodybuilding. I remember years ago, Getbig member "Viking Power" was into bodybuilding and was pushing for more and more gains. Later down the line he read the studies on caloric restriction on rats, and decided that he wanted to stay lighter for the sake of his health. I think The True Adonis was maintaining a body weight of 160-lb also for good health.
Bodybuilders have this tendency to get caught up in a cult-like mentality and drive to be the best at something that has the potential to ultimately destroy them. Only since having children do I realize just how happy I am to have never seriously pursued it. So obviously I related it to me. I have mentioned on here maybe TEN TIMES that I have qualified for Strongman Nationals in my weight class. That's a pretty happy accomplishment for me, so why shouldn't I post it? People constantly trash members for not walking the walk - well, I DID. I won Regionals and Provincials in my weight class, and yet that still doesn't get Getbig's approval.
What are you bench pressing, Pellius? Probably not 345 at 170 if I had to guess. Yet you trash me? At least I actually work out, have gone to expos, and have competed in many, many contests. Have you? It's just weird that I thought we were cool, yet you are so offended by my post. I could understand if I posted multiple times daily, but I read more than I write on here - the opposite of what I do on Facebook - and I just don't post enough to understand why I have caused you such grief. As someone who I thought I was cool with, I apologize. I have actually quite enjoyed my time on Getbig since returning, after promising Ron I would not post race or political discussions any more.
As for my YouTube channel - I just find it funny that I'm being slammed on here, yet I have over 17 million views on YouTube, on a channel I barely update! So obviously there are people who want to hear what I have to say. The proof is in the [InStone Vanilla] pudding.
Thank you for that insightful post Matt. Allow me to respond to that.
Girls and sons who have not been loved by their fathers seek attention once teens and adults to compensate for what they didnt have originally. Fathers either left them alone, or were distant most of the time and not encouraging them. Some even despised them which would shape their personality and the way they d interact with others for the rest of their life.
They are extremistic in everything they do, always looking exageratly for attention, and have troubles adapting to society's rules, because they also have troubles defining their own identity and respecting authority and hierarchy.
Also boys who got picked on by others during childhood and adolescence -often sons without a father figure- try to compensate by lifting weights, to develop muscles and survive in ther male world. They re insecure because they re girly, childish, feminine having been raised by a single mom. They lift obsessively hoping it will transform them into men, to compensate for their lack of influence from a father figure that was not there. Unfortunaltey they can get as big as they can it doesnt cure their insecurity and who they truly are, how they grew up being raised by a single mom. They re no as manly as other men whatever they do, and they often have a big lack of masculine presence they dont know how to balance, hence often being borderline homosexuals while trying to get their manhood back thru various manly activities (mma, cars, weight lifting etc).
They are often the ones that, in order to get respect from other males will go the steroids route to get even "bigger" attemptint to cure their insecurity , but being natural not being "enough", they still feel "too small", insecure, amongst other males. The lack of a father figure also often means they didnt have guidance to continue studies and are often working shitty manual jobs. You can dominate in life with studies, a good job that requires the use of all your best strenghts, which allows you to contribute fully to the specie that spawned you. By being successful socio professionnaly and by giving birth and raising happy individuals who will also contribute to mankind, to the specie. This is the benevolant, healhty way of contributing to mankind; you dominate by giving as much as you receive using your full potential. And then, there s everything else. The others main strategies of survival. For example, the uneducated loser with charisma linked to his muscles, who only exists because of his muscles, who only impress, dominate others with them. But to keep being respected -feared- and to keep impressing, the muscles must stay, and you want more, so at some point considering they re everything you have, you go the steroid route. No chance he gets an education, a good job, he didnt have a father to give him guidance, he s an atheist, he s an asshole, insecure about his own sexuality,so he survives in the gutters, the low part of the pyramid, can barely work a normal job and gets pissed by everything, always thinking about what he could have done if only his father actually invested in him, gave him soemthing instad of abandonning him.
There you have it, the roots of good and evil, where it all starts for a male in the human specie. Who raises secure kids, sons and daughters, who contribute to society, and dont fall for all the extremes, traps? The hard working faithful man. You godamn motherfucking moron , how is the medical establishment responsible for fathers abandonning their kids , sons and daughters, who will barely survive depressed all life long ? How is the medical establishment responsible for that in the first place? You re confusing the order of things. You re ignorant. You must be young! Of course they re striving on other people who come from shity families psycho behavorial troubles, developing medications that dont even work or at best keep people asleep so they dont figure they ve been fucked in the ass by their own parents, genitors, who didnt have the decency to care enough about them after giving birth to them. Moral, spiritual decline is what leads to suffering in all human beings. If psychologists, psychanalysts exist nowadays, if most people try to find a meaning to their life in pseudo philosophies from Orient, if they need steroids, anti depressants, sleeping aids, thats because love is disapearing , because families are dysfunctional, and all of this is happening because the Words of God have been abandonned.
All these bullshit pseudo medicaqtions full of side effects were developed as religion was gradually abandonned , because people fell for all the traps of modernism, and lost faith. And all these jobs, all these ''docs'' are assholes who need mentally ill people to survive, to have a job, they strive on other people problems, they strive on the disapearing of love and they give bullshit solutions to their ''customers''. And they re the biggest atheists, the most anti christian assholes on earth, you connect the dots.This is the irony of the whole thing. Again, you fail to understand the order of things. You put the consequences before the causes, which is ilogical, and ignorant. Most human beings are only caring about what tomorow will be made of. Job. Dinner. Sex. TV, Internet, workout. Bed. We re designed to do so by evolution. Tomorow i can anticipate this, this, and that. And? And that's about it. That's how our brains work. Currently we all collectively know some major shit is going to hit the fan in some weeks, months. Yet we cant do anything about it individually speaking. We re just waiting for it to happen. Says a lot about our so called free will, our "power".
We also know we re going to go thru something that alrdy happened in the past to our ancestors thanks to historians who wrote it all on paper so we can compare our current situation with theirs centuries ago. Yet we can t do shit about it even if we know it alrdy happened. We re as powerless as were our ancestors when they described the fall of the roman empire of occident. There can only be individuals solutions, no collective solutions. Nations dont exist anymore. Industrials, megacorporations use journalists , medias and politicians like pupets. And they are only following their own greed and dont give a single damn about the globalized mankind under them in the societal pyramid. They re only purpose in life is to stay at the top, and prevent people from lower positions to get to them and replace them. One can only decide to prepare himself and his loved ones to what s going to happen. He, she, cannot change the world. He cannot change the rules of nature. He can only adapt, to survive.
