Damn, Flex Mag is getting bad

[pumphard]

I just purchased the new Flex magazine, and I think it's getting worse every month.  They always fish me in to buy it with their cover shot.  I saw the awesome pic of Dorian and I bought it.  Inside it contains very simple diet plans, and b.s workouts.  You would think a top notch bodybuilding mag. would have knowledgeable guys writing the material.

[natural al]

I've had a subscription to this mag forever..probably 10 years and I'm not going to renew it this time...It just has very little "punch" to it anymore...I get pissed as hell when I see it on newstands before I get it...I used to get it a week before hand now I get it 2 weeeks later.

[pumphard]

The only thing they have going for them are the pics.  Articles are bland and repeats.

[Sir William Idol]

dude when are you, and everyone else, gonna realize that flex mag caters to beginners and thats it?  FLEX knows that once you've read a year of their mags they'll have given you all the material they have.  anyone who continues to buy it is just icing on the cake.  with the internet now, buying it for contest pics doesnt even make sense.

 building muscle isnt that fucking hard!  eat, lift, rest.  you know what to do, go out and do it.  dont blame flex.

[pumphard]

dude when are you, and everyone else, gonna realize that flex mag caters to beginners and thats it?  FLEX knows that once you've read a year of their mags they'll have given you all the material they have.  anyone who continues to buy it is just icing on the cake.  with the internet now, buying it for contest pics doesnt even make sense.

 building muscle isnt that fucking hard!  eat, lift, rest.  you know what to do, go out and do it.  dont blame flex.

You buy a bb magazine for inspiration, latest research information, and for entertainment.  But, you are right, it does cater to beginners, like I said, I get fished in when i see the cover on the newstand.

[Tre]

Readers who've been with FLEX for years buy out of a sense of loyalty and/or because they feel they are helping bodybuilding, not because they want to learn anything new about training or nutrition.

The photos are still top-notch, but unfortunately, they aren't able to deliver enough of them in print to satisfy viewers who prefer visual imagery.  Their website will be better for achieving that end. 

[YoMamaBeenLurking]

What are your thoughts Pete?  Your on here lurking right now looking at this topic.

[Adam Empire]

the mag stinks.  MD gives a trues sense of the current state of the industry (though I don't buy that mag either).

I am glad I canceled my Flex subscription - no more "Ad Reports", watered down articles, or drug ignoring articles.  The true news is here...

[Sir William Idol]

Readers who've been with FLEX for years buy out of a sense of loyalty and/or because they feel they are helping bodybuilding, not because they want to learn anything new about training or nutrition.

um....no.

people dont throw money at bodybuilding like its some sort of charity.  they are looking for something new which they're not gonna find.  so they're either too dumb to realize this or they're too lazy to cancel their subscription.


"loyalty to bodybuilding" through the purchase of FLEX magazine?  come on, where do you come up with this stuff?

[Adam Empire]

um....no.

people dont throw money at bodybuilding like its some sort of charity.  they are looking for something new which they're not gonna find.  so they're either too dumb to realize this or they're too lazy to cancel their subscription.


"loyalty to bodybuilding" through the purchase of FLEX magazine?  come on, where do you come up with this stuff?

LOL...  I'd rather mail my 6 bucks directly to Lee than buy a mag and be consistantly disappointed.

The problem with the mags (at least one of the problems) is that they are too loyal to their advertisers.  I would pay to read a mag with real supplement reviews (that rip the crappy stuff).  We need a consumer reports for the industry - say a twice a year mag to rate all by quality, price, to see if they really contain what is stated, and how much of it is in there (I know some of these companies put a pinch of the good stuff in and the rest is just cheap ingredients).  If they had an article like his monthly in FLEX (non-biased) I would certainly buy it more often... 

Flex mag should be smarter and give people stuff like that - info that they can't get elsewhere...

[HERACLES]

I just purchased the new Flex magazine, and I think it's getting worse every month.  They always fish me in to buy it with their cover shot.  I saw the awesome pic of Dorian and I bought it.  Inside it contains very simple diet plans, and b.s workouts.  You would think a top notch bodybuilding mag. would have knowledgeable guys writing the material.

Yeah..Repeats, repeats, repeats...

After you read BB magazines for a few years, they are all the same..

Still good for keeping up with contest results, interviews with your favorite bodybuilders, etc..

[gordiano]

I've had a subscription to this mag forever..probably 10 years and I'm not going to renew it this time...It just has very little "punch" to it anymore...I get pissed as hell when I see it on newstands before I get it...I used to get it a week before hand now I get it 2 weeeks later.

I hated that shit. At one point I was 3 months behind, and nobody knew shit. Nobody could help me. Since AMI took over, that mag is absolute shit.

[mesmorph78]

i ve been buyin flex every month for bout 5 yrs now round about....
ive collecetd a lot of back issues from the 90's during period.. i find it used to be better then in the 90's... lately it has been really bad.. same pics.. and how mnay arnold features can you do... todaday i ent to get it... and it wasnt out as yet so i god md.. which i dont particularly like since half of it is about juice....and comic drawings.. but i must say their interveiws are far superior to flex...

[MCWAY]

LOL...  I'd rather mail my 6 bucks directly to Lee than buy a mag and be consistantly disappointed.

The problem with the mags (at least one of the problems) is that they are too loyal to their advertisers.  I would pay to read a mag with real supplement reviews (that rip the crappy stuff).  We need a consumer reports for the industry - say a twice a year mag to rate all by quality, price, to see if they really contain what is stated, and how much of it is in there (I know some of these companies put a pinch of the good stuff in and the rest is just cheap ingredients).  If they had an article like his monthly in FLEX (non-biased) I would certainly buy it more often... 

Flex mag should be smarter and give people stuff like that - info that they can't get elsewhere...

The closest we've had to that was something I got for Christmas, almost a decade ago: The 1997 Supplement Review Book, by Bill Phillips. As I later learned however, it wasn't completely objective. After singing the praises of a number of supplements, Phillips gradually started to steer the reader toward his particular brand of those supplements (EAS).

As for FLEX (or any other magazine for that matter), why bother mentioning supplements that aren't effective? I'd much rather praise the ones that do work and be done with it.

Every magazine tends to lean toward a certain brand of supplement, especially if the company funds the publication. Back in the day, the battle lines were pretty much drawn:

SUPPLEMENT COMPANY - MAGAZINE(S):

Weider - FLEX, Muscle & Fitness
Twinlab - (All-Natural) Muscular Development (Fitness-Health)
Muscle Link - IronMan
ICOPRO - WBF (Bodybuilding Lifestyles) Magazine
EAS - Muscle Media (2000)
MuscleMag, MuscleTech - MuscleMag International

I do miss some of the old-school ads, especially from Muscle & Fitness. According to one ad, about 82 years from now, bodybuilders are going to be training in floating gyms, lifting rings with electormagnetic force-fields, instead of barbells and dumbbells, and consuming Weider's Sugar-Free BIG weight gainer.

The other is about Rich Gaspari and his Weider Anabolic Paks (I think that's the name of them). Apparently, he ran out and it was late. So, "because precise supplementation is something only a bodybuilder can truly appreciate", he allegedly drove all night, casing drug store after drug store, looking to find one still open that sold his favorite goodies.

AAAAAHHH!!! The good-ol' days

 

[LuciusFox]

The closest we've had to that was something I got for Christmas, almost a decade ago: The 1997 Supplement Review Book, by Bill Phillips. As I later learned however, it wasn't completely objective. After singing the praises of a number of supplements, Phillips gradually started to steer the reader toward his particular brand of those supplements (EAS).

As for FLEX (or any other magazine for that matter), why bother mentioning supplements that aren't effective? I'd much rather praise the ones that do work and be done with it.

Every magazine tends to lean toward a certain brand of supplement, especially if the company funds the publication. Back in the day, the battle lines were pretty much drawn:

SUPPLEMENT COMPANY - MAGAZINE(S):

Weider - FLEX, Muscle & Fitness
Twinlab - (All-Natural) Muscular Development (Fitness-Health)
Muscle Link - IronMan
ICOPRO - WBF (Bodybuilding Lifestyles) Magazine
EAS - Muscle Media (2000)
MuscleMag, MuscleTech - MuscleMag International

I do miss some of the old-school ads, especially from Muscle & Fitness. According to one ad, about 82 years from now, bodybuilders are going to be training in floating gyms, lifting rings with electormagnetic force-fields, instead of barbells and dumbbells, and consuming Weider's Sugar-Free BIG weight gainer.

The other is about Rich Gaspari and his Weider Anabolic Paks (I think that's the name of them). Apparently, he ran out and it was late. So, "because precise supplementation is something only a bodybuilder can truly appreciate", he allegedly drove all night, casing drug store after drug store, looking to find one still open that sold his favorite goodies.

AAAAAHHH!!! The good-ol' days

 

 LOL at Bill Phillips's supplement guide

[JeanPaul]

Muscular Development is better and could be even better if they get rid of Valentino and bring back the girls

[DragonsBreath]

Anyone want my free subscripition to FLEX? My local gym doesn't even want it. FLEX just keeps getting worse. old pics, bs article, ad after ad after ad, etc. M&F is even worse. i don't think they covered a BB event since the 90's.

just like everyone else on here, my script comes late ALL THE TIME! when it comes, i have already thumbed through it at Borders.

[Tre]

"loyalty to bodybuilding" through the purchase of FLEX magazine?  come on, where do you come up with this stuff?

Many of the people still buying FLEX today are the ones who've always bought it. 

Why do you think it's the longtime readers who are making the complaints?  A newbie would have no point of reference.

[Sir William Idol]

Many of the people still buying FLEX today are the ones who've always bought it. 

Why do you think it's the longtime readers who are making the complaints?  A newbie would have no point of reference.

you point is?  this still has nothing to do with "loyalty to bodybuilding."   if it was just about being loyal, as you have stated, they wouldnt care about the content;  they'd be secure in knowing their loyalty was intact solely through their purchase.

[Ex Coelis]

I stopped looking forward to the new Flex mag since they had the 20 best shoulders article a while back. It didnt even have Markus Ruhl in it. I literally threw it on the ground and walked away.

MD is ridiculously superior. It has tonnes more content even with 300 pages of ads. Plus they talk about steroids like in the recent issue where the editor went to Mexico to report on the availability of Mexican vet roids after Operation Gear Grinder. Even if you disagree with using steroids, its still an interesting article. Plus it has Flex Wheeler and plenty of big-name pros giving you an inside scoop on their training and personal lives. That's much more interesting than the same Flex trainign articles over and over.

Flex was great in the 90's and up to 2004 when they had those larger issues. Now they look like M&F. MD is the only one worth buying.

[abz]

I buy Flex & Muscular Development. That is it. Both have great photo shoots - good articles - and talk smack. They give a different view on contests - they need to since it is about two months after it happens.

Don't like Ironman - only talks about training which I can get from internet articles. MuscleMag - if I can find it - usually talks about Canadian bodybuilding.

[LuciusFox]

I stopped looking forward to the new Flex mag since they had the 20 best shoulders article a while back. It didnt even have Markus Ruhl in it. I literally threw it on the ground and walked away.

MD is ridiculously superior. It has tonnes more content even with 300 pages of ads. Plus they talk about steroids like in the recent issue where the editor went to Mexico to report on the availability of Mexican vet roids after Operation Gear Grinder. Even if you disagree with using steroids, its still an interesting article. Plus it has Flex Wheeler and plenty of big-name pros giving you an inside scoop on their training and personal lives. That's much more interesting than the same Flex trainign articles over and over.

Flex was great in the 90's and up to 2004 when they had those larger issues. Now they look like M&F. MD is the only one worth buying.

 I think I know why the article didn't have Ruhl in it.........synthol ........

[ribonucleic]

Flex surely doesn't deliver much Return On Investment these days. But the others all seem cheap and depressing by comparison.

Flex may be MAD magazine. But the others are Cracked.

[LuciusFox]

Flex surely doesn't deliver much Return On Investment these days. But the others all seem cheap and depressing by comparison.

Flex may be MAD magazine. But the others are Cracked.

 I've always wondered who saw fit to spend money on Cracked

[Dos Equis]

I've had a subscription to this mag forever..probably 10 years and I'm not going to renew it this time...It just has very little "punch" to it anymore...I get pissed as hell when I see it on newstands before I get it...I used to get it a week before hand now I get it 2 weeeks later.

Same here.  I just let my subscription lapse after getting it for years.  Not really happy with it anymore.