Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck

Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck... and the alternative approach that really delivers. What follows is a scathing report on
conventional bodybuilding methods.
This may seem very negative, but out of a
negative you’ll discover a huge positive.

The basic problem is that conventional
bodybuilding dogma dominates the training
world, despite this dogma being a total sham.

To discover the greatness of bodybuilding,
and strength training in general, you first
need to understand what’s wrong with the
training world. Then you’ll be informed
enough to be able to cut through all the crud.
So out of a negative you’ll get to a positive,
and discover how to build the physique that
conventional training methods deny you.


Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Anyone who thinks that the contents of this
book are alarmist, or that I’m exaggerating,
is way out of touch with the reality of the
training world; or he has his head in the
sand, is living in a make-believe world, or
is promoting a lie.

I’m exposing the squalid mess to help
prevent people from getting caught up in it
themselves, and to educate them on how to
exploit the marvellous potential benefits of
intelligent training.

With influence comes the responsibility to
wield power in a socially accountable way.
Many influential figures and companies in
the mainstream of the training world have
been utterly irresponsible, to put it mildly.
Millions of trainees have put their trust in
various individuals, publications and
institutions, but have been betrayed, and
at great personal cost.
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and the alternative approach that really delivers

I’m a diehard training and bodybuilding
buff, but I belong in a different camp to
that of most of the mainstream. I’ve no time
for the bull, deceit, fraud, drugs, lies and
absurd training practices that are rampant
in the mainstream.

Break away from training methods that don’t
work. Open your mind and find out from
this book how to get in charge of your
training. But you need to make the necessary
changes now. You can’t keep throwing away
chunks of your life on unproductive training
routines. Life is in short supply and the years
quickly slip by.


The way that much of the training
establishment has deceived the masses
is akin to how the tobacco industry has
spun its wicked web over the years. A
glossy picture is presented in order to
hide the squalid abuse of economic
power. This is a strong statement, but
read on and you’ll see that my words
are not mere rhetoric.
6 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...




Sure I’m a rebel, but a rebel with a
cause. You need a rebel’s perspective;
otherwise you’re going to fall prey to the
training mainstream due to ignorance.
You’re never going to get this rebellious
but liberating perspective from the
mainstream, because the establishment
isn’t going to go out of its way to
undermine its power. That many
magazines and books give similarly
irresponsible and even harmful advice
will never make that advice right. While
repeated hammering away at the same
lies and deception does make many if
not most readers believe they are being
given good advice and information, no
degree of repetition of deceit and
nonsense will ever produce something
of truth and value.
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and the alternative approach that really delivers



Contents
Preface 8
Is your training working? 10
What is conventional bodybuilding? 11
What gives me the right to preach to you? 15
My motives 16
What’s wrong with the training world? 19
The calamitous fallout 20
Train like a champ to become a champ? No way! 23
The claim that “the elite” are healthy 32
The old-timers were clean, weren’t they? 34
Want creation 38
Wreaking of havoc in other ways 43
Fraud and the commercial imperative 46
The current state of affairs 50
Bad beyond belief 53
Role models that mislead 55
What about the legitimate drug-free elite? 56
Why’s nothing done to put things right? 58
Stand up and be counted! 59
The success formula 62
If you would like to learn more 72
8 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Preface
Learn from the costly experiences of those who’ve been
through the mill of desperate frustration with conventional
training advice. This book is not based on only one man’s
journey. It’s a distillation of the experiences and acquired
wisdom of generations of people but which have been largely
hidden or ignored by the training mainstream.

Once you apply radical changes to your training program you
will be totally out of step with what most people do in the gym.

Have the courage to swim against the training tide. Always
keep in mind that popular training methods simply don’t
deliver the goods for most people. So why would you want to
use popular training methods? Life is too short to waste any of
it on useless training methods.

Because I’m only interested in drug-free training, and
primarily concerned with satisfying the needs of the
hard-gaining masses, most of the values and methods
promoted in this book are heretical relative to what’s
customary in most gyms today.

There’s no other approach to take if training methods that
are practical and helpful for drug-free typical people are
to be promoted.
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and the alternative approach that really delivers

Anyone, anywhere or anything that promotes
training routines that only work well for the
genetically gifted and/or drug enhanced, or
offers how-to information on drug abuse (or
carries ads for books on the same), or
promotes absurd expectations and role
models, or teaches high-risk or impractical
training practices, or is a food supplement
catalog in disguise, simply does not have your
best interests at heart. If you follow the
“instruction” found there you’re going to
tread the same path of frustration and even
despair that millions already have.




A journey of a thousand miles begins
with one step. By reading this book
you’ve taken the first step—a huge step—
towards the strong, well-developed,
healthy and lean physique you crave.
10 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Is your training working?
Do you really have some progress in muscle and might to
show for your efforts over the last few months?

More of the training approach that didn’t
work over the last few months isn’t going
to work over the next few months.

Before you can take charge of your own training and
physique, you need to understand why conventional training
methods not only won’t help you but may actually harm you.

Conventional bodybuilding methods are useless for most
people, and their promotion has grossly misled the training
masses. Look around almost any gym and you’ll see few
drug-free people who have good physiques. And consider
how many people have been gym members at one time or
another, but gave up due to dissatisfaction with the results.

The enormous failure rate of conventional training methods
isn’t publicized by the mainstream, because the mainstream
has a vested interest in the maintenance of the status quo.

Weight training is a wonderful activity, but only if it’s
working. When it’s not working it’s a massively frustrating
and disappointing activity. To increase the success rate of
weight training, an approach is needed which is radically
different to that promoted by the mainstream.
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and the alternative approach that really delivers

What is conventional bodybuilding?
Conventional bodybuilding methods are largely the training
practices of elite male and female bodybuilders and strength
athletes—practices which are vigorously promoted in most
bodybuilding magazines and books, and even on television
too. They involve weight training on 4–6 days per week,
multiple exercises per muscle group, and usually at least
three work sets per exercise (in addition to warmup work).

Conventional bodybuilding methods aren’t
just what any specific magazine, book or
publisher has to say. It’s a collective thing
arising from many authors, publishers, books,
magazines, organizations and gyms. It’s the
whole shebang of excessive and impractical
routines, and the presentation of the
competitive elite as gurus and role models.

Consider some of what conventional training methods
promote, and see how it’s a travesty of useful instruction:

1. Conventional training methods overtrain everyone other
than the genetically gifted and drug abusers, but
overtraining will not help you.

2. Conventional training methods promote some high-risk
exercises that injure many people. Getting injured will
not help you build the physique you want.
12 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

3. Conventional training methods often promote specific
dangerous techniques for otherwise good exercises, and
those specific techniques injure many people. Again,
getting injured will not help build a good physique.

4. Conventional training methods promote a volume and
frequency that are impractical for busy working and
family people. But even sacrificing work, family,
education and a balanced life won’t make conventional
training methods work for typical people, so there’s no
value in extreme measures anyway.

5. Conventional training methods place exaggerated
importance on food supplements. Food supplements
can’t make lousy training programs work.

6. Conventional training methods promote exaggerated
expectations, and invariably use drug-fed genetic freaks
as gurus and role models, neither of which will help you
to realize your potential.

7. Conventional training methods complicate training, and
confuse people. Complication and confusion can’t help.

8. Conventional training methods are not personalized to
meet individual needs, limitations, lifestyles and goals.
This produces overtraining, injuries, frustration and
giving up—i.e., failure.
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9. Conventional training methods actually encourage
drug abuse, because without the drug assistance those
methods just don’t work for most people.

Much of the mainstream of the training world, and the
bodybuilding dimension in particular, plays down the drug
problem, or pretty much pretends it doesn’t exist, and does
nothing of substance to help put an end to drug abuse.

That much of the establishment panders to the drug abusers,
glorifies many of them, has made a few of them into icons,
and presents them as role models, has played a major part in
encouraging drug abuse and the accompanying chaos.

The drug problem in the bodybuilding world in particular is
bad beyond belief. This has brought great ignominy upon
mainstream bodybuilding.

But there’s another side to bodybuilding, and strength training
in general. It has nothing to do with the drug abusers or their
lackeys, or with bull, lies, fraud, or impractical and useless
training routines. After pointing out what’s fundamentally wrong
and squalid about the training world, this book will show you the
other side of the coin—the clean, honest, truthful, productive,
practical, healthy and life-enhancing side.

As a youth, when searching for training
instruction I was heavily swayed by
14 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

appearances. What looked the best (to my
gullible eye), had the most striking photos, and
the most hype to really spike my expectations,
was what grabbed my attention. That it
presented useless and even harmful training
instruction didn’t dawn on me until years
afterwards, by which time I’d been robbed of
some of the best training years of my life.

Nothing has changed on this score over the
years. The same shambles continues for today’s
novices, and will continue in the future.

The “information” most responsible for misleading trainees
is not isolated to some specific and famous individuals and
publications. It’s everywhere, and even includes most non-
mainstream publications and a plethora of internet web sites.

Anyone, anywhere or anything that promotes training routines
that only work well for the genetically gifted and/or drug
enhanced, or offers how-to information on drug abuse (or
carries ads for books on the same), or promotes absurd
expectations and role models, or teaches high-risk or impractical
training practices, or is a food supplement catalog in disguise,
simply does not have your best interests at heart. If you follow the
“instruction” found there you’re going to tread the same path of
frustration and even despair that millions already have.
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and the alternative approach that really delivers

What gives me the right to preach to you?
I’ve dedicated my working life to exposing the myths, bull
and lies of the exercise world, in order to teach people how
to exercise responsibly, safely and effectively.

Born in 1958, in England, my “credentials” include over 25
years of training, over 350 published articles, having authored
five books on training, having published and edited an
independent training magazine since 1989, and having
always been independent of food supplement companies.

Because I’m genetically average, have never used
performance enhancing drugs, have an extremely
demanding job, and am a family man too, I can totally
relate to the lot of the average person.

I’m not part of the weight-training establishment. Though
I’ve written many articles for the mainstream bodybuilding
press, I’ve hammered away at my central themes, albeit
limited by editorial constraints. Few people in the training
world who have any visibility speak on behalf of the true
interests of typical grassroots trainees. Most people with
visibility speak on behalf of the training establishment,
and therefore have to peddle the usual “company line.”

But I’m no armchair athlete or theoretician. I’ve deadlifted
400 pounds for 20 consecutive rest-pause reps, and I’ve been
an inveterate muscle and strength buff for most of my life.
16 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

My motives
It cost me nearly half of my life, a great deal of suffering,
and an enormous waste of time, effort and money before
I learned the real deal on how to improve one’s physique
safely and efficiently. I want to spare others from learning
in the same extremely expensive way, or from giving up
training due to frustration with lousy results.

In my youth, being a naive and trusting lad, I followed
conventional bodybuilding methods hook, line and
sinker—just like millions of people have over the years.
And just like almost all of those millions, I found that
conventional bodybuilding methods suck.

Whereas just about all of those people moved on,
disillusioned and frustrated at having not realized their
exercise goals, I stayed in the weight-training world and
made a career out of teaching others to avoid falling foul of
the same perils that I and millions of others already have.

My views challenge the mainstream of the training world.
In my defense, consider these questions:

1. Is it wrong to want to stop people from committing
training “suicide”?

2. Is it wrong to want to prevent people from wasting years
of their lives training incorrectly?
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3. Is it wrong to want to spare people from suffering injuries
from using high-risk exercises and specific techniques?

4. Is it wrong to teach people that they don’t have to spend
a great deal of time in the gym in order to realize their
strength and physique potentials?

5. Is it wrong to teach people how to realize their exercise
goals while maintaining a balanced life—without
sacrificing work, personal and family lives on the alter
of excessive time spent in the gym?

6. Is it wrong to want to spare people from wasting money on
food supplements that don’t deliver what the ads promise?
Is it wrong to let people know that some food supplements
simply don’t contain what the labels list? Is it wrong to let
people know that lies and massive exaggeration are used to
promote food supplements?

7. Is it wrong to expose the drugs, lies and deceit that are
rampant in the training world?

8. Is it wrong to promote practical training routines that
work without drugs?

I’m not anti conventional training methods
for the sake of it. I’m just against anything
that deceives the masses, or promotes useless,
harmful or impractical training methods.
18 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Conventional training methods work well for hardly any
drug-free people, so why promote them?

The benefits of a responsible exercise program are great, but
you won’t experience any of them if you get cheated like I
was and millions of other people too.

Conventional training instruction is in a colossal mess,
and it’s outrageous how so much bull and deception are
promoted in gyms today. Inappropriate, impractical, non-
personalized and dangerous instruction will not do. There’s
an alternative approach—one that’s appropriate, practical,
personalized, safe, healthy and super productive.


The paradox
Though the chronic failings of the training
mainstream motivated me to write articles and
books, and publish a magazine, it was the
training mainstream that provided me with a
degree of visibility from which I could present
an alternative perspective. On the one hand
there’s so much to protest about concerning the
training mainstream; but on the other hand,
without the training mainstream I wouldn’t
have been able to provide an alternative voice
to the extent I have. It’s quite a paradox.
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What’s wrong with the training world?
Primarily the promotion of impractical and inappropriate
training methods that only work well for people who have
been blessed with great genetics, or for drug abusers. As a
result, most people don’t get the results they want.

The training world is built on huge success for a few people,
and minimal or no results for the majority. What I promote
is different to what the mainstream churns out because I
teach healthy, real-world training for real people with busy
lives and a sane drug-free mentality. My concern is with the
training masses, not the competitive elite.


What most mainstream articles and books don’t tell you
is that the featured role models are usually genetic super
people and/or are taking so many drugs that they make
themselves super people until, that is, their health crashes.
As super beings they can prosper on training methods that
the average person can’t. Someone who doesn’t share your
drug-free genetically “normal” condition is in no position
to lecture you on how to train for your best results.


With few exceptions, it’s true that mainstream books and
articles don’t give how-to advice on drug abuse. But by
promoting routines that only work well for drug abusers, and
by revering people who are drug abusers, that’s tantamount
to drug endorsement at worst, and outrageous hypocrisy at
best. And it’s a travesty of responsible behavior.
20 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

The calamitous fallout
The rampant use of muscle-building drugs is the worst
calamity that has ever hit the training world. Drugs have
produced dishonesty of untold proportions. The first
casualty of drug abuse is the truth.

Most modern-day training magazines and books reek
of lies and dishonesty because of rampant drug abuse
by many if not most of the men and women featured in
those publications, and used in advertising.

Some bodybuilders and strength athletes who only got to
the top because they had drug assistance are still claiming
that they never took chemicals. Usually they are dishonest
because they are ashamed of their drug abuse, and don’t
want to tarnish their clean public images. And some even
promote the charade that they were hard gainers.

While the harm to health that the chemicals
have wreaked is a huge problem, as are the
criminal implications of illegal drug use,
these are nothing relative to the colossal
harm done to the drug-free training masses.

Rampant but generally secretive drug abuse since the early
sixties, when steroid use really took off, led to drug-assisted
training methods being almost universally promoted as
appropriate even for the drug-free training masses.
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But these conventional training methods don’t work for
drug-free genetically typical trainees. Because these
methods are so unproductive, most people who try them
are propelled into a well of frustration and disappointment.

To make conventional routines work well, harmful
anabolic chemicals usually need to be used. Dissatisfied
bodybuilders looking for quick fixes to their training
frustrations and disappointments have produced huge
markets for drug pushers. But the drug route is not the
only solution for training woes!

If people would train on routines based on the principles
and values promoted in this book, they would get results
that would astound them. They would not experience the
frustration and disappointment that are usually standard
when using conventional training routines. Then they
would not feel pressured to take dangerous drugs in order
to make their training work.

Out-of-this-world strength and Mr. Universe-type muscular
development are only possible for genetic phenomena who
are stuffed with drugs. Forget about comparing yourself
with drug-fed genetic phenomena, because that’s the route
to despair, frustration and drug abuse. What matters is what
you do with your physique, not what others do with theirs
under extraordinary circumstances.
22 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

While it’s true that the approach I promote won’t make you
into a Mr. Universe, it will take you a darn sight further than
conventional training methods would. There’s no comparison!

Keep your integrity, sanity and health.
Absorb with every atom of your being the
paramount fact that your health is your
most important possession. And your
integrity is not far behind in importance.
Train drug-free, always!

Anyone who says that bodybuilding drugs are safe to use, is full
of bull. Some of the people who give you the “bodybuilding
drugs are safe” spiel happen to sell how-to books on drug
abuse. A few of these “experts” are dead, partially if not wholly
due to their own drug abuse.

Bodybuilding drugs are dangerous, and should be avoided like
the plague. As Charles A. Smith told me shortly before his death
in January 1991, “You never know how important good health is
until you no longer have it.” Think about this. Dwell on it. Make
it one with you while you still have your health, not when it’s
too late. Avoid all harmful habits, activities and environments.
Look after yourself!
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Train like a champ to become a champ?
No way!
“Train like a champion to become a champion” has long
been the message promoted by the weight-training world,
especially bodybuilding. This message has been trumpeted
in one form or another by almost all the magazines and
books in the field—both mainstream and “sidestream”—
and by most trainers and gyms too. The motive is simple—
it attracts great interest and sells magazines, books, courses,
food supplements and gym equipment. While it’s been a
big commercial success in some respects, it’s been a disaster
for the training masses.

The promotion of the “merits” of copying—wholly, or
partially—the training methods of the “champion”
bodybuilders and lifters is one of the most costly frauds
in the exercise world. Despite millions of trainees having
failed to meet their exercise goals in spite of putting into
practice the methods used and promoted by the
“champions,” the fraud continues. The failure of the
training masses to achieve their goals is not publicized
by the mainstream. The successes of a tiny minority—the
“champions”—dominate the mainstream press and hide
the real state of affairs in the training “trenches.”

Many years ago I used to be a big fan of a number of very
famous, elite competitive bodybuilders. They were heroes
of mine until I found out about the immense harm they
24 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

were responsible for. I was just one of the millions who,
over the years, were grossly misled by these men.

The following is a statement of what these men were
really responsible for; and what bodybuilding orthodoxy
prefers to keep hidden, in the hope that by keeping it
suppressed people will actually believe that competitive
bodybuilding is healthy and full of decent and honest
people worthy of emulation. This suppression is necessary
in order to keep the “train like a champ to become a
champ” mentality alive and kicking.

The real champions of the training world are
not the drug-enhanced genetically blessed
competitive elite. The real champions are the
unsung heroes who applied years of dogged
determination in order to build themselves
up against the odds, without ever using
drugs, without seeking or finding publicity,
and without divorcing themselves from the
rigors and responsibilities of everyday
working and family life.

Genetically gifted and drug-enhanced super
achievers who have near-perfect training
conditions and lifestyles can’t hold a candle
to the real heroes of the training world.
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I started weight training in 1973, age 15, when a handful of
“legendary” bodybuilders were in their prime. I know from
first-hand experience the impact such men have on ignorant
and gullible neophytes. Their training methods were
promoted to the training world with no caveats. This was
done via numerous magazines from many publishers
worldwide, and several books. The format was basically,
“Here’s how the champions did it, and if it was good
enough for them it’s certainly good enough for you. Train,
eat and take food supplements like the champions do, to
be like the champions!”

When I started out in bodybuilding I was consumed with
dreams of building a great physique. I wanted to be as
good as the most famous men of the time. I trained with
the same dedication. I trained as their articles said I
should. And I didn’t neglect the mental aspects—I
imagined my biceps as mountains, and I had a hugely
positive mental attitude.

I was at high school at the time. I took on jobs to earn the
money needed to buy the food supplements and extra food
I had to have, along with as much training literature I could
get ahold of. Everything in my life played second fiddle to
bodybuilding. I became a recluse. I was antisocial. All I wanted
to do was train, and then apply myself to fully satisfying my
recovery needs, which meant getting lots of sleep and avoiding
social activities. I was as dedicated as possible.
26 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Because I had the extreme level of dedication supposedly
needed to become a “champion,” and because I knew I was
delivering on the dedication front, and was training harder
than anyone else at the gym, and I ate a lot and slept
plenty—going to bed earlier than my peers—I couldn’t
understand why I wasn’t making good progress. In fact, I
wasn’t making any progress for a long while.

It was only many years later that I fully
understood the reasons why I wasn’t making
any progress—I didn’t have the extraordinary
genetics the “champions” had, and I wasn’t
“supplementing” with drugs. I actually
believed that the only supplements the
“champions” took were of the food type.

I didn’t build a physique like the “champions.” Not only
that, but I didn’t even get close. In fact, the methods they
followed and advocated set me back.

When I got to know of the drug component, I was disciplined
enough never to use bodybuilding chemicals. Had I not had
this discipline, however, I’d probably either be dead by now,
or a physical wreck. Not having the genetics to be able to
build huge muscles naturally, almost certainly meant that
I’d never have had the physical robustness needed to
withstand heavy drug abuse.
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I wish someone had grabbed that young, gullible and oh-so-
enthusiastic bodybuilder I was, and insisted that I trained in
a way that was appropriate for me. Then I’d have made
more gains over just a few months than I did from many
years of the conventional approach of four or more days of
training each week, multiple exercises per bodypart, and
many sets. I was robbed of the best training years of my life
through deception and utterly irresponsible instruction.

Train like a modern-day elite bodybuilder and you’ll never
develop a terrific physique unless you’re one of the very few
who have fantastic genetic potential. Don’t waste years of
your life before you learn this lesson. Learn it now!

The “instruction” found in most articles from/by elite
bodybuilders has no practical relevance for typical people.

Almost all bodybuilding magazines throughout the world
have, to varying degrees, promoted the “train like a champ
to become a champ” maxim. For an illustration, consider a
1998 article in a major newsstand bodybuilding magazine on
the chest training of one of the most famous bodybuilders of
all time. A five-exercise 24-set chest routine twice a week is
training suicide for the typical drug-free trainee. That’s how
it is. This is not sour grapes, or mean spirited.

There were no caveats accompanying the article pointing
out the need for superior genetics and drug assistance to
28 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

make the routine work. What relevance has that article got
for the typical trainee with average genetics and the good
sense not to use drugs? But the typical youngster is going
to copy it, and thus suffer as I did when I was very young.

Countless others suffered the same way I did,
and still are today, because the same sort of
irresponsible training nonsense that misled
me in the seventies is being reprinted or
rehashed today.

Not only did the “champions’” methods not help me, they
caused injuries, gross overtraining, and sickness. So they
harmed me. Millions of others have been affected in an
adverse way, though you’ll never read about this in the
mainstream publications. Despite all of this, the elite are
almost deified by some people and publications.

Just about every “champion” bodybuilder since the
steroids era began has been guilty of promoting
overtraining and impractical and often harmful training
methods, destroying the dreams of countless people, and
giving weight training a bad name.

Some “successful” but scurrilous bodybuilders have claimed
to have been hard gainers. Steroids were what “fixed” their
perceived “hardgainingness,” and enabled them to train six
days a week; but never was that mentioned in the magazines
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and books. Food supplements, “better” training, and more
dedication were the “secrets,” so we were told.

The promotion of the training methods used by drug-
assisted and genetically gifted men wreaks havoc,
despite these men being presented as demigods in the
bodybuilding world. Sure they have inspired millions,
but at the same time they have misled millions; and their
“instruction” has robbed millions of people of the best
training years of their lives.

The ensuing desperation drove many people
to turn to steroids, to try to make the pseudo
training advice work. Lousy instruction fuels
drug abuse, because without drug assistance
those methods don’t work for most people.

Though people who’ve suffered from the “train like a
champ to become a champ” nonsense know the real score,
endless newcomers to bodybuilding don’t, and they are
going to tread the same well-worn path of deception and
dishonesty that millions of people already have.

When sizing up the contribution to bodybuilding of
modern-day physique “stars,” consider the following:

1. They were presented as role models for others to follow,
with the implicit or explicit mantra of “train like a
30 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

champ to be like a champ.” Millions of people tried
exactly that, in good faith. But they didn’t get the full
story. The roles of genetics and drugs weren’t disclosed,
and the utter inappropriateness of the “champions’”
methods for typical trainees wasn’t pointed out, so the
training masses were deceived big time.

2. Many people dedicated their lives to their bodybuilding,
to imitate the “champions,” and sacrificed education,
careers and balanced family lives, and all without even
getting close to what the “elite” achieved.

3. Food supplements were often touted as the “missing
ingredient” for training success. Millions of dollars have
been made by selling overpriced food supplements that
didn’t deliver what the hyped up claims said they
could. Drug-fed supermen endorsing food supplements
was a powerful commercial success for the companies
involved, but again, the whole story was held back.
As a result, many if not most readers really believed
that the food supplements played a major role in the
bodybuilding success of the men providing the
endorsements. That drugs were the big “supplement,”
and food supplements were neither here nor there
relatively speaking, was kept quiet. So again, the
bodybuilding masses were hoodwinked.
 31
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4. What has gone wrong in the past is still happening
today. There are millions of newcomers to bodybuilding
who will get sucked into the same mess that I did and
millions of others too. So the fraud continues unabated.

5. Many people discovered that the “champions’” training
methods do work to a degree if you take enough
steroids. So indirectly, the failure of those methods to
yield results for the masses, promotes drug abuse.

6. The drug abuse has caused deaths, countless health
problems, crime, jail terms, ruined relationships, and
devastated families. This is a hideous state of affairs.

It’s a strange world that glorifies many drug
abusers who have deceived millions of people
and caused so much dissatisfaction, frustration
and downright misery.


Please distribute this book FREELY ,
to spread a message that can help
many people. Direct people to go to
http://www.hardgainer.com/sucks/
to download the book FREE. If you
FREE.
prefer to email an attached copy
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4
32 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

The claim that ‘’the elite’’ are healthy
Some magazines and books which supposedly promote
a healthy lifestyle are packed with physiques that are
pumped to their gills with drugs. A few of those physiques
have subsequently died largely if not wholly due to drug
abuse. That’s hardly in line with a healthy lifestyle.

When I started out in bodybuilding, and for quite a few
years, I believed that the “champions” followed the
healthy lifestyle the magazines boasted. I believed that
the “champions’” success was a result of their dedication,
hard work and clean living, and that I should follow their
example. In my ignorance I followed their training
advice, like millions of other have and still do.

These dishonest people didn’t spill the beans about the
whole story behind their ability to grow on routines
that were training suicide for me and other clean-living
and principled people. I was just one of the millions
who were deceived.

I wish I’d known the full picture in my teens, and had
trashed any advice coming from anyone on drugs. But the
mess related to drug abuse back then was low-key relative
to the extent of the squalor today.

How do you know who is and who isn’t on drugs? Just
about every “champion” competitive bodybuilder since the
 33
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early sixties has been into the juice, and not just steroids in
most cases. It’s not a case of “if” so-and-so abused drugs,
it’s more a case of “how much?”

It’s not just the bodybuilding dimension of the weight
training world that has a lot to answer for. Drugs are a mess
in all aspects of the Iron Game, but more so in some aspects
than others. Of course, drugs have provided huge problems
in almost all athletic endeavors.




With few exceptions, it’s true that
mainstream books and articles don’t give
how-to advice on drug abuse. But by
promoting routines that only work well
for drug abusers, and by revering people
who are drug abusers, that’s tantamount
to drug endorsement at worst, and
outrageous hypocrisy at best. And it’s a
travesty of responsible behavior
34 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

The old-timers were clean, weren’t they?
The pre-steroids old-timers did it drug free, but steroids go
back to before the early sixties, which was when their use
really started to take off. Some old-timers were taking
steroids before the stench of drug abuse became widespread.

If you look at bodybuilding magazines since the forties, the
sudden jump in the standard of physiques in the sixties, and
the number of people with very “high” standards of
development, is striking. It wasn’t a result of “better”
training, supplementation and nutritional habits, like some
people would have you believe. Additionally, there was far
more frequent promotion of absurd training routines once
steroids became widespread—working out six days per
week, even twice a day in some cases.

Steroids enabled the “champions” to train to a far greater
extent and still progress, and those methods were promoted
to the masses without the caveat of the need for steroid use
to make the methods work. Instead, the “champions” were
promoted as demigods who were dedicated to a greater
degree than other people, and that was why they became
“great.” As I’ve said before, and I’m sure I wasn’t the first to
have said it, “The first casualty of steroid use is the truth.”

Bill Pearl is a very big name who misled the masses for
many years. To his credit, he did come clean about his use
of steroids, and spilled the beans to some extent.
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As a genetic superman bolstered with
drugs, Pearl was light years away from
being a role model for the genetically
typical and drug-free masses. He was one
of the big names who seriously misled me—
one of the men promoted as a demigod by
the bodybuilding world.

My parents bought me Pearl’s courses, as a Christmas
present when I was about 17. Their instruction was useless
for me. There was no mention of the role of genetics and
drugs in Pearl’s achievements.

No mention of drugs, that is, until I read his 1986 book
GETTING STRONGER. Then I started to appreciate that
Pearl was an example of a tremendously gifted man who
was further enhanced by drug abuse. Yet for many years
he’d been offering advice to the drug-free genetically typical
masses. No wonder his routines were so far off the mark.
Here are some of Pearl’s own words, from GETTING
STRONGER, and he could probably have spilled a lot more
of the beans had he chosen to:

My first experience with steroids was in 1958. I had won
the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests and was in
Florida making a movie with Arthur Jones, a thoroughly
unorthodox and eccentric friend (who would later
revolutionize weightlifting with the invention of the
36 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Nautilus machines). Arthur told me about a new
chemical the Russian weightlifters were using. When
I returned to California I did some research.

At the University of California at Davis I met a
veterinarian who told me that steroids were being used
with good results to develop strength and growth in
cattle. The name of the drug was Nilivar and the daily
recommended dosage for humans was 10 mg.

Now it might seem extreme for someone with no more
information than that to begin using the drug, but
that’s what I did. Good enough for a bull, good enough
for me! It never even occurred to me that there could be
anything harmful in the drug or any side effects...

Two years later I decided to enter the 1961 Mr.
Universe contest. By then, steroids were out of the
experimental stage and well-known to most
competitive bodybuilders. They were no longer an
underground item. I remembered the fast progress
I’d made using them and decided to do so again...

Most of the old-time bodybuilders will not touch steroids
now, but probably used them at one time or another.

While Pearl came clean, at least to a degree, few of the other
big names did—at least not in public. So training methods
 37
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that only work for drug-fed genetic supermen have been
drip fed to the masses since about 1960. The training masses
have been led asunder, and the only way for most people to
make those training methods work well was to take steroids.
This is no way to promote “healthy” bodybuilding.

There wasn’t, however, a golden age of training instruction
in the pre-steroids era. I’ve a library of training publications
going back a hundred years. Training volume inappropriate
for most people, exercise techniques that cause problems for
many people, high-risk exercises, non-individualized
training, and dreadfully deceitful ads have been promoted
to the masses for over a century. Though there’s nothing
new here, modern-day big business and the drugs problem
have made matters far worse.

The bodybuilding world is stuffed with people who lie
freely and sell fraudulent products. A few of them have
been hailed as icons of the modern world, and given
numerous awards for business “excellence” or
“contributions” to the training world.
38 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Want creation
The “follow the champs to become a champ” maxim is used
to create demand for innumerable training-related products.

Why is there so much attraction in the training world to
matters that are insignificant, useless or even harmful? Because
there’s not much money to be made out of getting people to
just deliver on the package—hard training on basic exercises
along with plenty of milk and knife-and-fork food (to produce
a caloric and nutrient surplus), bags of rest and sleep, and
gearing everything to generate the progressive exercise
poundages (in perfect form) that produce bigger muscles.

To produce enough income to satisfy the demands of a
plethora of interests, money has to be made out of selling
“improvements” to the package in terms of “better” programs
and equipment, and “add ons.”

There needs to be a great industry of want creation, and
never mind the uselessness of many of the products that
demand is created for, or the fraudulent nature of the
promotional techniques. This industry of want creation
is largely what the bodybuilding establishment exists to
produce. And how well it has produced it.

The most profitable “add ons” are food supplements,
because they are mass produced, consumed quickly and
need to be “renewed” often, yielding lots of repeat sales.
 39
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Food supplements offer huge potential for
repeat sales. A barbell set can last a lifetime, as
can a good book on training know-how, but a
can of protein powder only lasts a week or
few. The profit margin on food supplements
is large, and the scope for hype and lies in
marketing material is unlimited.

Because bodybuilders and strength trainees are made so
gullible by the mainstream literature, there’s an unlimited
market for selling food supplements. So the supplement
hawkers are going to keep ramming their often criminally
dishonest claims down the throats of muscle mag readers.

Some food supplement companies publish bodybuilding
magazines (or are very closely intertwined with the
publishers), and use those magazines to promote their
wares. It’s no wonder that many trainees seem to think
more about food supplements than their training.

Exaggerated claims, dishonest reporting, abuse of editorial
responsibility in magazines and books, and utter nonsense
are used to produce demand for large sales of supplements.

Ask around most typical drug-free gym members who have
no vested interest in the sales of food supplements, and you
won’t find many who will tell you they experienced much if
any significant increase in their rate of progress as a result of
40 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

using bodybuilding food supplements. You will, however,
find many who will tell you that the most significant results
of their taking food supplements are the dents made in their
bank balances along with increased visits to the toilet.

Because there’s nearly always something “new” being
hyped up, along with “improved versions,” many trainees
are willing to give food supplements “just one more try.”
Even when that “last one” bites the dust, as it usually does,
something else comes along, with a sales pitch that wins
the doubters over, and trainees give that one a shot. On it
goes—the supplement marketing boys know what they are
doing, and the bodybuilding world is ripe for the picking.

Some ads in the muscle magazines truly are
criminally dishonest. The problem isn’t a bit of
exaggeration or promotional hype. The
problem is so very serious that it’s a damning
indictment of the liars who put their names to
“endorsements,” and of the liars who write the
fictional claims for progress made while
supposedly using the advertised supplements.

I know that these scoundrels are full of bull,
as do most seasoned trainees. But novices
don’t. It’s not only the big guys used in the
bogus ads who should be damned, but the
 41
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companies putting the ads out. And those
who allow the ads to reach the public are
encouraging the liars and crooks.

Drinking a potion, or swallowing tablets or capsules, to try to
help training and physique progress will always have a very
big appeal, largely because they are easier to deliver on than
are consistently hard training, good eating and sleeping.

Promoting a training method that supposedly needs food
supplements to make it work is a great marketing ploy to
sell food supplements. But no food supplement will make
a bogus training method work.

Off the record, some of the charlatans will tell you that
you’ve got to get on the real “gear,” namely steroids (not
food supplements), to make their training methods work.

A reader of HARDGAINER called to let me know about a
well-known “expert” (a man who has taken steroids for
many years). Someone called the “guru” to complain that
the “expert’s” training methods weren’t working.

The first question the “expert” asked was, “What are you
on?” “Guru” assumed that the caller was already on drugs,
but the wrong stack and dosage of the blasted things. Of
course, the “guru” doesn’t put the required drug usage in
his articles; so people follow the articles in good faith, not
42 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

knowing that they are only for drug-using fools. Thus, the
“guru’s” methods wreak havoc in the training world.

Such is the shambles of mainstream bodybuilding, and the
criminal activities of some of its “experts.” Truth be told,
those “experts” should be put behind bars.

The “improvements” and “add ons” of the training world
have to be hyped up way out of proportion to what they can
really deliver (or even be promoted with a pack of lies), due
to the commercial imperative of creating a demand.

The great attention placed on all the “extras” inevitably
produces a huge distraction from the priority issues, along
with a great deal of bull and deceit, including bogus and
even harmful products. So the training masses are cheated,
and denied the progress that should be theirs.

Get the package in good consistent order, and you’ll go far—a
darn sight farther than all typical trainees who get caught
up in the hoopla and bull of the modern training world.
 43
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Wreaking of havoc in other ways
Genetically gifted, drug-fed, pro or semi-pro athletes are a
totally different breed to the rest of us, and what can work
well for them can wreak havoc on the rest of us. For
example, training techniques that work for them can ruin
the joints of typical trainees. Despite this, many of those
harmful training practices are promoted to the masses
without any cautions or caveats.

Presenting some outstanding success stories as men who
once were “ordinary” hard-gaining people is a travesty of
the truth that has been used many times. The truth is that
these people are usually genetically gifted and, at least
during the last forty years or so, drug assisted.

I’m not calling all trainers and coaches liars. Neither am I
saying that all examples of stellar results are from genetic
standouts and/or drug abusers, but I can confidently say
that most are. Only part of the truth is usually used in
promotional writing, in order to increase the trainer’s status
and kudos, in order to kid the ignorant and gullible masses.

This method of conning the masses has been used for many
years. But what you don’t find out about are the failures
from applying the methods that supposedly account for
the success stories, and the injuries and damage that were
produced among typical trainees.
44 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Conning the training masses takes many forms, such as...

1. It’s a fact that some people who have never used a given
trainer’s program actually endorse it and even claim to
have used it.

2. It’s a fact that some people who have never used the
touted food supplements, endorse them.

3. It’s a fact that some people who have been taking
steroids for many years claim to be drug-free examples
of what a certain coach’s training and food supplement
regimen can do.

4. It’s a fact that “research” referred to by some people in
the training world is fictitious.

5. It’s a fact that the benefits of food supplements are
usually exaggerated big time, or even made up.

I’m not saying that all claims are packs of lies, but I am
saying that the bodybuilding world is notorious for
exaggeration and deception, especially when food
supplements are involved.

There are often facts that are hidden—perhaps the trainee
concerned was coming back after a long layoff, perhaps
he’s a very easy gainer, perhaps he was on steroids,
 45
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perhaps the time period involved was much longer than
reported, or perhaps there’s been some creative touching
up of the photos concerned. I’ve even seen the same head
put on different bodies! But an expert can merge a head
with someone else’s body and you would never be able to
detect it. There are almost no limits on what can be done
today when working with photographs.

Some people have no scruples, and will do
whatever they can get away with in order to
con people. This behavior is ever worsening
because an ever increasing number of
individuals are digging their hands in the
coffers of the bodybuilding world.


While I actually have a vested interest in the
shortcomings of the training mainstream—
because I‘ve made a career out of providing an
alternative viewpoint—I’d much prefer that the
mainstream hadn’t been defective and deficient
in the first place. Then the success rate from
mainstream instruction would have been so
wonderfully high that there would have been
little or nothing to protest about, and no need for
an alternative approach.
46 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Fraud and the commercial imperative
The “train like a champion to become a champion”
mentality carries a great deal of marketing clout, and even
works very well for the elite of the bodybuilding and
powerlifting worlds. These people—who are often credited
with having written articles and books—promote the sort
of training that worked for them. They never had the
experience of being bona fide hard gainers, so can never
get in the shoes of typical trainees. So the training masses
continue to be led astray.

Some of the ghost writers do know the real score, however,
but because they are the lackeys of the big names they are
writing on behalf of, they have to fuel the flames of bull,
nonsense and fraud.

In some ways it’s in the best interests of
many companies that people fail in their
training. This failure creates the reservoir of
frustrated masses that produces the fodder
for those making exaggerated or fraudulent
claims for food supplements. The food
supplement industry is where serious money
is made, not the training instruction industry.

Most mainstream magazines don’t exist to promote practical
training information that works for typical trainees. They
exist largely to maintain the high circulation figures needed
 47
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for obtaining a lot of high-priced advertising. Also, keep in
mind that some magazines are used as catalogs for the sister
or master food supplement companies that are associated
with those publications.

Sensible training information that works for the masses won’t
sell hundreds of thousands of copies of magazines or books.
Photographs are the prime factor behind big sales of
bodybuilding magazines and books. In many cases, the
more awesome the photographs, the better. This leads to
glorification of drug-fed excesses, and a glaring contradiction
with any espoused principles of good health.

The focus on the visual has also led to the presentation of
as much female flesh as possible (whether trained or
untrained), and as much use of sex as possible. Consider
how often that word crops up in cover blurb. The use of the
word “sex” seems to have greater importance than the word
“muscle” on the covers of some bodybuilding magazines.
This has nothing to do with training instruction, or the best
interests of readers, but simply the commercial imperative
of attracting buyers in sufficient numbers to make a
newsstand magazine economically viable.

When numbers are the bottom line, publication content will
be tailored to meet the primary need, not the best interests of
readers. And that, in the bodybuilding world in particular,
usually means a focus on the elite, the freaks and the most
48 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

awesome, along with as frequent as possible connections
with sex. Of course, the use of sex as a sales technique is not
unique to bodybuilding. It’s used in many other fields too.

The failure rate of bodybuilding is enormous, and not just
because of the lousy results that conventional training
methods deliver for most people. The number of people
who get turned off by the dishonesty, clear contradictions
and nonsensical training advice that abound in most of the
mainstream publications, is vast.

Additionally, the drug-fed muscular monstrosities (male
and female) that some magazines publicize and admire
repel many people from bodybuilding, and make the
activity a freak show and laughing-stock.

So long as there are plenty of gullible newcomers—usually
young men—to replace the former “discarded” readers, all
is well on the numbers front. And why change a proven
formula? It has “worked” for decades.

The training mainstream is very adept at presenting bull,
nonsense and deception as truth. Even people who are well
educated and very discriminating in their professional lives
often become utterly irrational in what they accept as truth
in the training world; until, that is, they’ve invested a year
or two of training and learned that conventional routines
don’t work well for conventional people. But by then most
 49
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of them have given up, and written off bodybuilding (and
perhaps exercise in general) as something that doesn’t work
for them. Thus they fail to obtain the wonderful benefits
that accrue from a lifetime of regular exercise.

So continues the old and familiar story of the
training masses getting shafted by swallowing
the mentality of “train like a champion if you
want to become a champion.”



There’s quite a bit of information and
advice in the mainstream that is
accurate, but the promotion of accurate
information is a vital part of the game
of deception. An illusion of credibility
is produced through presenting accurate
information and drawing upon people
with apparently impressive academic
qualifications and “reputations.” This
“softens up” the readers so that they
are easily conned by the lies, deceit
and bull which are mixed in with the
accurate material.
50 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

The current state of affairs
It’s over 25 years since I started bodybuilding. But the grim
reality is that mainstream popular training instruction is no
better now than it was back then. And in fact, it’s worse. I
am, however, only concerned with drug-free and genetically
typical (and disadvantaged) trainees—i.e., the training
masses. As far as the elite are concerned, it’s a “better”
world today—more drugs, more effective drugs, more
competitions, more publicity, more money and more fame.

Part of me wants to wash my hands of the training world
because of its nauseating deception, bull, dishonesty, hype
and drugs. I’m not just directing my comments at
bodybuilding. Strength sports are riddled with the same
mess. But another part of me gets very angry at the hokum
that’s rampant in the training world, and drives me to make
an effort to present some truth and honesty.

The word “success” is often used incorrectly. Kidding the
masses, selling training misinformation, and leading people
astray is not “success” no matter how many millions of
items of “product” are sold, how much profit is earned, or
how many tributes for business “excellence” are awarded.

Appropriate, practical and safe training instruction for
typical trainees is what I’m into, and what should be the
heart and soul of bodybuilding and strength training—
mainstream and otherwise.
 51
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Photographs sell training magazines and
books, not articles and workout instruction.
In many cases the articles are just the
padding needed to provide the spaces
for photographs and ads.

For photographs to do the job of grabbing the bodybuilding
masses—who, to their cost, are usually into a publication’s
appearance before its content—they need to be arresting.
This inevitably leads to the publication of the most
awesome physiques.

Today’s most awesome physiques belong to the genetically
gifted and drug-enhanced. They are light years away from
what the genetically typical drug-free person can achieve.

But the drugs component is either understated or, more
commonly, ignored—for reasons of not downgrading the
physiques and reputations concerned, to avoid law suits,
and to try to give bodybuilding a “clean” image.

The training methods used by the drug-fed genetic
phenomena—which are often embellished with a hefty
dose of fiction—are promoted without any caveats. They
should be accompanied by this sort of warning:

“But these routines only work if you have
phenomenal genetics or drug assistance, and
52 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

preferably both in spades. Sane and
genetically typical people must train in a
totally different way. We only provide over-
the-top instruction for entertainment and to
attract buyers. Don’t try to use the instruction
yourself! What worked for the champions will
not only not work for you, but may destroy
your chances of achieving your potential. Not
only that, but it will yield huge frustration
and disappointment from so much time and
effort being invested in achieving training
failure, along with accumulating injuries that
could scar you for life.”

To finish “the current state of affairs,” here’s what a publisher of
a foreign language edition of a big US bodybuilding magazine
told me recently: “One [city]-based sports nutrition trader...has
undertaken to publish a US bodybuilding magazine...The sole
purpose of this project is clearly to use it as a promotion vehicle
for nutrition products.” The same can be said of some of the
original US-published magazines. The job of the publication is to
pull in readers, and then feed them information that “softens”
them up for the sales pitches for supplements embedded in
articles, or in the ads themselves. Training “information” and
photographs are just the padding around which the
supplements promotion is arranged. What hope is there for
decent training instruction or objective nutritional information?
 53
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Bad beyond belief
I was recently leafing through a series of books from a
famous bodybuilding author. The content was bad beyond
belief. It was one awful book after another, preaching the
same bull—training instruction totally inappropriate for the
drug-free and genetically typical masses, “decorated” with
genetic phenomena largely if not wholly bolstered with
drugs to further enhance their already great advantages.

The naive, gullible and ignorant masses—especially young
men—are attracted by the photographs in these books, buy
the books, and follow the abysmal “instruction” that was
used to fill the spaces between the photographs. These
books are not being published to help the average drug-free
bodybuilder. There’s another agenda.

Relative to 1973 (when I started training), nothing has really
changed instruction wise in the bodybuilding world other
than a greatly increased number of photograph albums that
pose as instruction manuals. So the mess is actually worse
today than it was when I started out.

Even worse, and I’m not saying that this is
intentional, but promoting training routines
which don’t work for 95-plus percent of
trainees actually encourages drug abuse.
Without drug assistance those training
methods just don’t work.
54 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

No matter how awesome something looks or is packaged,
and no matter who says it or endorses it, never be
persuaded that any workout instruction used by drug-fed
genetic phenomena—even a watered-down version—has
any real relevance to you.

Think things out for yourself, be true to yourself, and only
follow routines that are appropriate for you, practical, and
personalized to your individual situation.

If you don’t do all of this you’ll follow the same route of
training misery that millions already have, and further
millions will as they apply themselves to training methods
that haven’t a hope of yielding success unless drugs are
used to compensate for the lack of phenomenal genetics.

Trading your soul and health for fleeting physical
rewards is no sane way to go. Don’t wait until you
no longer have your health before you appreciate its
priceless value.
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Role models that mislead
In the pre-drug era, before I was born, the genetically super
gifted, including the late John Grimek, were inspiring even
though their achievements were out of reach for typical
people. Their training routines, too, were out of line for
“average” people, and needed to be heavily pruned back.

But the physique achievements of today’s drug-enhanced
genetic freaks are in a different world to the achievements of
the super gifted of the pre-drug era.

Even John Grimek in his prime wouldn’t
have been able to gain on what the modern
crop of drug-fed mega achievers grow on. If
a fantastically blessed superman like Grimek
couldn’t have gained on this modern stuff,
what hope is there for regular mortals?

All drug-assisted and drug-free genetic phenomena don’t
have a clue how to train drug-free genetically typical
people. But they know much about how to mislead and
deceive. Always keep that in mind when you hunt for role
models or help with your own training.
56 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

What about the legitimate drug-free elite?
Aren’t they worthy role models?
There are some drug-free top-level bodybuilders, though not
as freakish as the drug-fed crop. While many of these elite
“naturals” are as drug-fed as the monsters, there probably are
a few who are clean (but astonishingly gifted genetically).
Some of them even claim to be hard gainers. After all, they
did struggle a bit to get from 18-inch to 19-inch arms. But
anyone who could get huge without drugs was never a hard
gainer. Even the elite’s progress grinds to a halt eventually,
and then they find gains hard to come by. But that doesn’t
qualify them as hard gainers. And just because they are drug-
free doesn’t mean they are genetically typical and therefore
suitable role models for the rest of us.

Some of the near-freakishly developed “naturals” boast they
are examples for what can be done sans drugs. Then they lay
out a training program for readers to follow that even
Schwarzenegger in his prime would have been proud of.
(Schwarzenegger was absolutely no example of a drug-free
hard gainer for typical trainees to follow!)

There’s remarkably little difference between the elite naturals’
routines and the drug-fed’s routines. Perhaps the former need
a bit more recovery time, and fewer sets, but still their
training methods are far removed from what typical trainees
need, such are the former’s tremendous genetic advantages.
So, paradoxically, the mainstream deception “machine” has found
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allies in some natural “champs.” No one—whether drug-free or
drug-fed—who has great genetics for building muscle and
might can ever get in the shoes of the typical hard gainer.
Anyone who promotes long routines, and more training days
than rest days, is promoting an approach that only works for
the genetically gifted and/or drug fed. It never worked for
typical drug-free trainees in the past, and it will never work
for them in the future, no matter how many food supplements
are taken, or which brand name is chosen.

Dedication, food supplements, attitude and hard work can’t
improve one’s genetic inheritance. They are, however,
essential for realizing one’s potential, but only if combined with
a training program that’s appropriate for genetically average people.

Some food supplement companies use a “tested” drug-free near-
freakish physique to endorse their products. A big thing may be
made of the “drug-free” condition, but no mention is made of
the tremendous genetic good fortune the man has. Supplements
are promoted as the big “equalizer.” So once again, the typical
trainee gets shafted as the establishment hides truths, makes its
own “truths,” and distorts things to suit its own ends—ends
which are not in the best interests of the training masses.

The way that much of the training establishment has deceived
the masses is akin to how the tobacco industry has spun its
wicked web over the years. A glossy picture is presented in
order to hide the squalid abuse of economic power.
58 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

Why’s nothing done to put things right?
With the bodybuilding world in particular being in such a
mess—though you’d never realize it if you only read the
mainstream magazines—you might wonder why nothing
is done to put things right.

Despite drugs being so endemic in bodybuilding, and with
the elite competitive physiques (male and female) being
juiced up to the hilt, no serious action is taken against drug
abuse. Instead the “stars” are presented as role models,
given tremendous publicity and opportunities to line their
pockets, and some of them are made into icons.

Drug testing, as scarce as it is, is pathetically inadequate.
No serious action is taken against drug abusers because the
consequences could be so dire for the powers that be. If a
legitimate and rigorous surprise test was performed at a big
contest, or on the big guys who endorse food supplements,
they would all test positive for drug abuse.

If all the beans were spilled, that would rubbish the public
“credibility” of the many organizations and companies that
have built their success on the edifice of lies, drugs and
deceit that makes up much of mainstream bodybuilding.
There’s simply no strong and principled leadership at the
top to do anything about the problem. So the drug issue is
largely swept under the carpet, and a pretense made that
there really isn’t such a big problem after all.
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Stand up and be counted!
In my teens in particular I fell prey to the siren calls of those
who sold fraudulent products and used scurrilous tactics to
deceive the ignorant but gullible masses. Today the siren
calls are even more attractive and deceptive.

I recently discovered some antics of a very big name in the
world of competitive bodybuilding. Exploiting his fame,
he’s offering “personal” (and very expensive!) training
courses through correspondence.

Based on minimal information that can never get even close
to understanding the strengths, limitations, goals, individual
circumstances and lifestyle of the individual—all of which
can hugely influence the design of a training program—Big
Name provides a non-individualized “personal” training
program along with supplement advice. It probably won’t be
long before he has his own line of food supplements, in
order to pillage the market even more.

No mention is made to prospective “clients” of the freakish
genetics and tremendous drug support Big Name has, and
of how he’s utterly unqualified to instruct typical trainees.
His training philosophy for the masses is pretty much “train
like I did to become like me.”

Big Name has an accomplice for the scam—another juiced-
to-the-eyeballs genetic marvel. What hope is there that this
60 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

duo will offer responsible training for typical trainees?
Zilch! These two scam artists are just two of many, such is
the state of the training world. This sort of mess is not new,
but there’s far more of it around today than in the past.

That so many people are ripe for being ripped off is largely
a reflection of the mainstream propaganda that intentionally
misleads people, or at least hides the truth. This leaves the
training masses prime prospects for ripoff merchants.

The mainstream misinformation and deception “machine” is
wrong. But doing what’s right isn’t the bottom line for most
mainstream interests—the numbers game and end-of-year
financial statements are what count most of all.

Stand up and be counted by turning your back
on what’s wrong in the training world. Never
mind if having scruples and doing the right
thing is unfashionable in some people’s books.

Rid yourself of all the crud that produces so much failure
and exploitation in the training world; and rid yourself of
those who propagate the crud. This means cutting yourself
off from drugs, liars, cheats, hypocrites, and unrealistic
expectations that can only be realized through freakish
genetics and buckets of drugs.
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Educate yourself, become your own expert personal trainer,
take charge of your own training, never surrender control to
another person (especially a drug-fed genetic phenomenon),
train yourself safely, sensibly and productively, and accept
that you can never match the drug-fed monsters.

Dedicate yourself to achieving your own potential, and
knuckle down to years of consistent intelligent training that
has been personalized to suit you. And always keep your
health as your number one priority.

Do all of this and you’ll achieve your own
physical excellence, enjoy the journey there,
and be a credit to the true and honorable
standards of the Iron Game, and be a credit
to yourself.

Be challenged by this call to arms to stand firm against the
stench of drugs, lies, bull, fraud, hidden agendas and
irresponsible training advice that besmirch the Iron Game.
Together, we really can make a difference.
62 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

The success formula
Contrary to what conventional bodybuilding methods would
have you believe, in order to build a terrific physique...

1. you don’t have to weight train even three times per week,
let alone four, five or six times;

2. you don’t have to use a great variety of exercises, or high
volume training;

3. you don’t have to take “bodybuilding supplements,”
though some other supplements can have health benefits
and be very valuable;

4. you don’t have to get caught up in all the hoopla and
hype of the bodybuilding world;

5. you don’t have to use high-risk exercises or techniques, or
any foolish macho bravado;

6. you don’t have to copy drug-abusing habits of the big guys.

But you do have to adopt a totally different approach to
your training and whole outlook on bodybuilding. There is a
huge bonus on top of improved results—reduced time spent
in the gym, and a more practical approach for busy people.
So you can achieve your exercise goals without sacrificing
important aspects of your work or family life.
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Shortly I’ll provide a summary of what would have
delivered the goods for building a big, very strong and
impressive drug-free physique when I was a beginner, given
a few years of consistent application. It still delivers the
goods today, over 25 years on. In fact, it’s the only type of
training that produces decent results for most people.

Don’t waste years of your life, like millions of others already
have, trying to prove to the contrary.

I realize that most of the prescriptions that follow shortly
are radical or even downright blasphemous relative to the
edicts of conventional training. Have the courage to swim
against the training tide. Always remember that popular training
methods simply don’t deliver the goods for most people. So
why would you want to use conventional training methods?

Because I’m only interested in drug-free
training, and primarily concerned with
satisfying the needs of the hard-gaining
masses, it’s inevitable that most of the
values and methods promoted in this book
are heretical relative to what’s customary in
most gyms today.

There’s no other approach to take if training methods that
are practical and helpful for drug-free typical people are
to be promoted.
64 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

What follows is an outline only, to lay a foundation.
There’s much to learn about how to implement the
framework in a way that’s personalized and appropriate
for a given individual.

Training program design needs to accommodate
individual factors including goals, age, training history
and experience, strengths and limitations, injury
background, equipment availability, and recovery ability.
In addition, exercise selection and form must be perfect.
This is no simple matter. A look around almost any gym
will provide a litany of poor exercise selection and lousy
form, and demonstrate the gross ignorance that abounds
on exercise selection and form. Also, recovery ability
needs to be enhanced, and nutrition optimized.

While my focus has always been on meeting
the needs of the drug-free and genetically
typical—hard gainers (who are really
“normal” gainers)—the training methods I
promote are also appropriate for easy
gainers, i.e., people who have naturally very
responsive bodies. Even easy gainers want to
make progress as fast as they can, without
injuries, and without becoming slaves to a
gym. This is precisely what sensible and
personalized abbreviated training delivers.
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I know that the framework promotes a simple and basic
approach to bodybuilding and strength training, but
that’s exactly what most people need. One of the biggest
and most destructive myths of the training world is that
simple, basics-first routines are for novices only.

It’s important to get to the root of productive weight
training—building up to handling impressive weights in the
big exercises in consistently perfect form. If you want to build
a terrific physique, you absolutely must build up to using
big weights in the major movements. Just what is “big”
varies according to the individual, due to a number of
factors including goals, age, gender and training
experience; but “little” weights only build little muscles.
Incrementally and consistently increasing your exercise
poundages is the name of the muscle-building game.

Training, nutrition and recovery all need to be geared to
assist your body to build additional strength pound by
pound, to work up, over a period of years, to big weights.
The best way to achieve this, training wise, is to use
abbreviated routines, safe exercise selection and perfect
form. That’s why abbreviated training is the way to go.

Getting caught up in the small exercises like most trainees
do—leg extensions, leg curls, pec deck work, cable
crossovers, pec flyes, lateral raises, concentration curls,
triceps kickbacks, etc.—hinders progress on the big
66 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

exercises that really matter. Why bother with those little
exercises if you want to build bigger and stronger
muscles? Why train in a way that hinders progress on
the exercises that really matter?

There are, however, a few very important small exercises that
have vital assistance value for keeping you injury resistant
for the big exercises. But these small exercises don’t include
the aforementioned ones that are so popular today.

You can’t refine a physique until you’ve first built the
required muscular size. Drug-fed genetic freaks can build
and refine, but drug-free genetically typical trainees can’t.

Here’s the outline of sensible abbreviated training that’s
appropriate for anyone—male or female, young or not so
young, hard gainer or easy gainer, beginner or very
advanced. And it applies whether you want to train in a
home gym, or in a public gym.

1. Simple routines of 6–8 exercises maximum per workout,
and better still for many hard gainers, only 3–5
exercises. No single program is best—there are many
interpretations that can work well.

2. Most of your exercises should be big compound
movements—e.g., squat, deadlift, parallel bar dip and
chin—if you’re at the upper end of the number of
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exercises, and all of them should be big movements if
you’re at the lower end of the spectrum. The harder you
find it is to progress, the more you need to prune back
on the exercises you perform.

3. Weight train no more than twice a week.

4. Alternate two different workouts.

5. Add an extra day or two of rest between workouts, if
necessary, for full recovery.

6. Master exercise form, and always use impeccable
exercise technique.

7. Use a controlled rep speed of about 2–3 seconds for the
positive and at least 3 seconds for the negative. Put the
emphasis on keeping your reps smooth. Explosive
training greatly increases the risk of injury, so avoid it.

8. Warm up very well—better too much than not enough.

9. Perform no more than three work sets per exercise.

10. Make poundage progression in perfect form your
training creed. Add a little weight to each exercise every
week or two—a little weight means a pound or so on
each big exercise, and no more than half of that on the
68 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

smaller exercises. Use “little gems”—i.e., fractional
plates or microloads. This applies during the hard stage
of a training cycle. During the earlier “breaking in”
stage you should be able to add weight faster.

11. Follow a high-quality protein-rich diet every day that
provides a caloric and nutrient surplus. You can’t build
muscle without enough of the required raw materials.

12. Spread your dietary intake over five or preferably six
feeds a day.

13. Experiment with protein intake—you may need large
quantities to maximize results.

14. Sleep well every night—at least eight quality hours.

15. Conserve your energy on your off days.

Fine-tune most of this outline based on experimentation
that’s governed by sticking with what helps, and dropping
what doesn’t—to personalize the template for you to
produce month-by-month progress.

Some factors, however, aren’t open for modification—don’t
compromise on perfect form, for example, though you
should tweak grips and stances to find what works best for
you. And for as long as you want to get stronger and bigger
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muscles, never compromise on the need to keep adding a
little poundage to each exercise whenever possible.

With the “adjustable” factors, individual modification can
make a big difference. Perhaps you need a lot more protein
than most people do, perhaps you need ten hours of sleep
daily rather than eight, perhaps you’re better off training three
times every two weeks rather than twice a week, and perhaps
you’re better off deadlifting only once every two weeks.

Make this proven fifteen-point plan work for you by
applying it with resolute dedication. Do it for a few years
and then you’ll be so big, strong and impressive that you’ll
make most people gape when they see you for the first time.

I wish a wise mentor had grabbed me by the scruff of my
neck as a beginner, and forced me to follow nothing other
than simple and abbreviated training programs, with the
priority being to increase my exercise poundages while
always using impeccable form. I wish that mentor had
ensured I never wavered from the sure way.

Had this happened, I’d have developed a better and
stronger physique by age 20 (after five years of training)
than over 95% of drug-free bodybuilders the world over.

As it happened, I gave my absolute all to bodybuilding for
five years, but had little to show for it. Application and
70 Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck...

motivation are only part of the battle. Appropriate training
instruction is essential. No amount of dedication and
motivation (or food supplements) can make lousy training
programs work.

If I’d had this imaginary mentor, and had he
been an uncompromising dictator when it
came to the use of perfect exercise form and
abbreviated routines, and insistent on the
need to keep adding a little iron to each big
exercise every week or two, for year after
year after year, I’d have made gains so
consistently, and without injuries, that
I’d have thought I was an easy gainer.

I’d have been adding a tad of iron every
week or two without any perceived increase
in effort needed, such would have been the
gradual and intelligent nature of my
progression. I’d have accumulated gains on
an almost linear basis for year after year.

Having discovered The Golden Fleece, I’d have been
scratching my head wondering why so many people
had trouble developing bigger muscles.
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All of this doesn’t apply just to me, but to
all hard gainers who want to build stronger
and better physiques, though the specific
interpretation of exercises, training volume
and frequency, caloric and nutritional
intake, sleep needs and rate of progress
vary among individuals.

Live for the moment and don’t harp on about
what you should have been doing in former
years. No matter how many mistakes you’ve
made, no matter how much training time
you’ve wasted, and no matter how much you
wish you could turn the clock back, what’s
done is done. But stop repeating past
mistakes, and stop letting people cheat you!

Today is the start of the rest of your life.
You’ll never be as young as you are now.
There’ll never be a better time than today
to start getting your training-related life in
perfect order. So start today to get in charge
of your physique!
Why Conventional Bodybuilding Methods Suck.