Bodybuilding Magazines
Many look to bodybuilding magazines as an objective, inexpensive source of effective weight training and bodybuilding diet principles that will help build muscle mass, yet in reality, the vast majority of bodybuilding magazines aim to promote supplementation as their primary (and often sole) focus. In fact, many bodybuilding magazines are run by supplement companies, and their print space is reserved primarily for promoting bodybuilding supplement usage, while they occasionally write articles that claim to outline routines of steroid addicted pros (which do not benefit the natural bodybuilder, and from what I can gather, are often not even the routines of those who they claim follow such weight training workout methods!).
Most diet and weight training mistakes stem from incorrect advice offered in popular bodybuilding magazine publications, and realizing their prime focus (pushing bodybuilding supplements on confused, misinformed weight lifters) should prompt you to stop reading.
Are these bodybuilding magazines helping natural weight lifters looking to gain significant muscle mass? Absolutely not. Are these bodybuilding magazines accomplishing their own selfish supplement pushing agendas? Most certainly. Since bodybuilding supplementation remains an extremely lucrative industry, these magazines are very effective at their primary focus, which is to sell you truckloads of bodybuilding supplements! If you’re seeking to gain muscle mass, please avoid investing in bodybuilding magazines, as doing so benefits everyone except the reader!
In short — avoid bodybuilding magazines, as they are simply propaganda laced advertising vehicles designed to push supplement sales! Remember, muscle mass originates from a potent diet and weight training workout plan, and NO available bodybuilding magazine will provide you with a cohesive, effective muscle building diet and exercise program (which is what you need to produce a dramatic physical transformation). If such magazines spent their 300 pages teaching you how to properly eat and weight train, you’d have no desire for supplements, nor would you ever need to buy another issue of their magazine (and they know this)!
I have achieved tremendous success (over 60 lbs of muscle mass gained), and am now teaching men and women around the world exactly how to naturally build muscle mass through my MuscleNOW bodybuilding program.
Are Steroids Necessary To Build Muscle?
Steroids are very dangerous and completely unnecessary in building muscle mass. In fact, I was VERY skinny at age 16 (130 lbs), and gained over 60 lbs of muscle mass without using steroids or any other drug, with many of my MuscleNOW bodybuilding program users also having added substantial muscle mass naturally, through the muscle building diet and weight training workout plan that I personally designed.
By following proper diet and weight training techniques, you will build muscle mass without risking quality, or quantity, of life, and what many fail to realize is that most of the improvements made using illegal and dangerous steroids disappear after discontinued use, meaning that, unless you regularly inject yourself with artificial hormones, the majority of added muscle mass will vanish, and you will potentially feel and look worse than prior to using the drug (due to a sharp reduction in natural hormone levels), not to mention risk destroying your health.
Just ask any of the many families who have lost a loved one to steroid use, and they’ll quickly point out the price paid for the short term superficial change in appearance.
It’s very rare for an individual to immediately die from steroid use, as the damage occurs gradually, meaning that one may contract disease or pass away in their 30s, 40s or 50s, instead of living into their 80s or 90s, all because they decided to risk their life by taking a dangerous, artificial substance to temporarily boost muscle mass. What is the safe alternative? Achieve your genetic potential through a proper bodybuilding diet and weight training workout plan, while actually enhancing health and well being, which is a far more logical decision (as you can maintain a natural physique for decades, without harming yourself in the process). I’ve never heard of any man or woman smoker dying from one cigarette, but we all know that long term smoking carries a substantial risk for lung cancer, and many pass away decades before their time due to such a foolish habit. Gambling with life is a very serious mistake!
Steroids impact each individual differently, which is why using such drugs becomes a deadly game of Russian Roulette, as you may be a lucky survivor, or find yourself with cancer or an enlarged heart in several years (nobody knows all of the medical ailments that are linked to abuse of steroids, but cancer and enlarged hearts are health issues that clearly can develop through steroid abuse). There is NO cure for these potential deadly side effects, so why take the risk of shortening your precious life?
For those who feel they are strong-willed enough to take steroids for only a short period of time, psychological addiction is very common with steroids, especially considering that the muscle mass gained will only remain with continued usage, and since a steroid user develops a natural tendency towards addiction, even those who may have the intention of only using steroids for a limited predetermined period of time find themselves, like the smoker, fighting an extremely difficult and powerful psychological compulsion towards continued use. If you work long and hard to build a certain level of muscle mass with steroids, you’ve set an unnatural standard for yourself that can only be maintained by continuing to inject yourself with drugs, and the consequences are potentially deadly.
Becoming a living pharmacy creates a life filled with potential mental and physical breakdown, and such a lifestyle fails to consider the obligation we have to God in preserving our gift of good health, not to mention the duty we have to protect our lives for family and friends who care about and rely upon us.
Also, avoid bodybuilding supplements for similar reasons, as any that actually work as advertised can risk health, and since most do not function as claimed, it’s clearly a lose-lose proposition. In short — avoid steroids, growth hormone, and bodybuilding supplements that claim to manipulate hormone levels for added muscle mass. Remember, safe muscle gain results from a structured, potent bodybuilding diet and weight training workout plan, with NO supposed band-aid (such as steroids) serving as a valid substitute. I have achieved tremendous success (over 60 lbs of muscle mass gained) without steroids or supplements, and am teaching men and women around the world how to safely build muscle mass through my MuscleNOW natural bodybuilding program.
Muscle Tone vs Muscle Mass
Contrary to what most have read in popular bodybuilding magazines and various Internet sites, those who desire a very cut, ripped, defined physique without freaky professional bodybuilder size train identically to those who seek 100 lbs of added muscle mass! Therefore, if you are currently skinny OR fat, producing a lean, athletic looking physique (a “beach” body) is only possible through both the addition of new muscle mass (not large quantities, but enough to “tone”) and a reduction in body fat.
Regardless of what you may have read elsewhere, muscle tone is not defined as mere fat loss, but rather is comprised of small to moderate levels of new muscle mass in conjunction with body fat reduction, as the combination of muscle gain and fat loss leads to the lean, defined build associated with models and athletes. Fat loss without new muscle mass will not develop a slim, firm, shredded physique, but rather a skinny, lanky body that lacks a pleasant tone and shape.
Many mistakenly assume that huge, eye-popping muscle mass will always result from weight training, while in fact proper resistance exercise coupled with an effective diet strategy is necessary even for those who only seek muscle tone, with calories controlling the level of muscle mass built. With the exception of caloric intake, those who desire a lean, model-like appearance must weight train and diet identically to those targeting large increases in muscle mass, as lower calories will prohibit considerable muscle gain, instead producing moderate improvements while consistently reducing body fat, leading to a very defined, lean, athletic build.
So, will I instruct you to train for 3 hours per day, 6 days per week? Absolutely not! Whether your goal is large or small levels of muscle mass, training length is reasonable and intense. With proper weight training and diet principles, YOU can control the level of muscle mass gained and fat lost (through food quantity), meaning any and all goals are possible with ONE plan.
I have achieved tremendous success (over 60 lbs of new muscle mass) through proper diet and weight training alone, so am now teaching the world how to follow in my footsteps through the MuscleNOW natural bodybuilding program, without supplements or steroids.