Big Is Inside

Have I ever mentioned to you that you are ready to begin prepping for a contest?

Seriously, you are ready.  In spite of what you may believe, you are ready.  If I have mentioned it to you, then TRUST MY JUDGEMENT; it’s time to step up.  

See, I have a "good eye" for recruitment.  I am a coach, so some of what I do is separating out the posers from the players.  If I couldn’t spot that early, then every team of bodybuilders I’ve coached would have floundered and gone belly up.  

(DISCLAIMER ON THE PICS IN THIS POST: These are all bodybuilding.com/bodyspace.com members whom i have had conversations with about this very topic.  Including them in this post is to signify they are among the MANY guys who I feel are ready . . . if anyone is uncomfortable being mentioned this way let me know and I’ll gladly pull you off.  Meanwhile, it is intended in the spirit of recognizing your efforts for the positive.)

Now, I can usually spot readiness when it comes to an athlete’s attitude, physique and methodology.  That’s why, if I mentioned it to you, I was serious.  It was not a compliment, but a fact; I “spotted” you.  You are ready; no matter what YOU think ready is, as the guy with the experience I can tell you that you are ready to begin NOW.

But “ready is willing” I always say.  Although I can spot readiness, willingness has to be told to me.  If an athlete is not willing to believe he has what it takes, then he is not ready.  Not by a long shot.

And then my suggestion to begin just seems like flattery.  If an athlete does not believe that he has it, and you won’t listen to the “old dog” who has spotted your talent, then you’re is not ready.  Ready is willing.  If you hear my suggestion as only a compliment, then you ain’t ready.

But that doesn’t change I have spotted you, and that you got what it takes RIGHT NOW.  I have found the qualities in hundreds of guys who at first didn’t think they were ready.  Most of them stayed stuck in their belief.  Eventually some stepped up to compete, long past the point  when it would have made sense to begin competing, and then had a crappy experience and became embittered.  Yet most just took the suggestion as an idle compliment, and never acted on their readiness at all . . .

The few who did step up went far, made huge gains, and were glad they listened to me.  Even if i did not directly coach them, they trusted that I was not flattering them.  They put faith in the fact that, as a coach (and thus as sort of a “recruiter), that I could spot the qualities better than they could.

Often, I can find these qualities fast, without even much interaction with an athlete.  That’s why I may have suggested it to you.  Usually, these qualities become evident in just a few, little, seemingly subtle details which I pick up on.  ]To list whatthese cues might be would take a long time; besides, much of it is just an intuition I have built up from years of coaching and recruiting.  I have seen the jokers, and learned what they look like.  And I have seen the true athletes, and know how they are spotted.  

And, like I said, I may have spotted YOU.  If I did, it wasn’t a compliment . . . .  It was a fact.

You are ready to become an athlete.

Take that not as a compliment. Take that as assessment.

As a coach, one of the greatest obstacles I have to push athletes past is their own perceptions.  In bodybuilding, 95-95% of the popular media and popular image is based around “body manipulation”, and not based around the competitive field. You see tons of anecdotal imagery and writing about this guy and that who got his weight up to so many pounds or got leaned down to such-and-such body fat percentage. But these are all manipulations of the body’s properties. They are not assessments of a guy’s competitive abilities.

So, what happens is decent athletes like you evaluate their competitive ability based on a comparison of their physique with their ideal. But this comparison — between what you got and what you “think is awesome” — is not anywhere near an assessment of how you would fare in competition. It is only an assessment of your “social cred.” Know what I mean?

Bodybuilding is not about “who has the best body.” Bodybuilding is about “who PRESENTS the best AESTHETIC.” And there are OCEANS of difference between those two concepts.

Popular media makes a LOT more money off the “get the best body” message. So, that is mostly what gets snagged in people’s consciousness. But this leaves the competitive arena out in the cold. usually guys have no idea how “close” they are to being competent in this sport. Instead, they just listen to the anecdotes out there, and compare themselves to these ideals.

Likewise, in bodybuilding all athletes make progression. Which means NO ONE in ANY SPORT starts out being Mr. Win-It-All. There is NO ATHLETE or team that started out winning. In fact, MOST start out losing. And for good benefit. How else could you improve if you do not first compare yourself to other athletes?

Most guys do not want to go near competition based on the foolish and lofty idea that “I am not ready until i can go in and WIN.” But think about that: go in and win at a sport you’ve never played, much less experienced in any other way than anecdotally? That would be like saying “I am going to copy what i see in EVERY FOOTBALL MOVIE EVER MADE, and then I’ll be ready to win a football game.” Sacked.

You have to remember that no amount of web-surfing will communicate the competitive arena to you. Now will it give you the perspective on your abilities.

This sport is about a set of skills rarely talked about in all these forums. The skills of presentation have, ironically, little to do with training and dieting. Training and dieting merely “get the equipment ready for the job.” But massive size and cuts are NOT a guarantee for success. They are merely “better equipment.” The worst athlete in the world can have the best equipment in the world, and still only play a mediocre game . . .

I face this SO OFTEN in my coaching. The kid with the killer body who is basically a competitive botard.

For what YOU would need in terms of equipment, you are ready. Remember, you would go in first to learn. Learn the sport, learn how to be competitive, learn ways to master your game, and learn ways to improve your equipment. The first three or four shows a “winning strategy” is to forego the idea of winning. That may SOUND counter-intuitive, but you need to learn how to play.

So, your EQUIPMENT is ready to begin to play. Ironically, most athletes find they make more mass gains and get leaner by regularly competing instead of by constantly training. Faster “personal improvements” get made when one approaches their physique work like “training for a sport” as opposed to just like “body manipulation tactics.”

So, in short, saying you’re ready for a contest is, in fact, NOT a compliment. It is an ASSESSMENT.

I am saying, in short, you are ready to begin playing, and to personally begin reaping the benefits of the pursuit — far more benefits, and far more PERSONAL GAINS benefits, than you may at first imagine.

Do not be flattered. Be informed.

Like I said before, I am always telling athletes the same thing: “Ready is Willing.”

To be “ready” merely means to be “willing” to take on the task. Do not assess “readiness” based on the equipment you DON’T yet have; base “readiness” on your willingness to USE the equipment that you DO have.

Your equipment is more than ready.  I spotted you.  I pulled you out – maybe even CALLED you out.  You’re ready to begin if you so choose.

So, all that’s left is: are you WILLING?

No compliment necessary!

THERE’S A NEW SPORT OUT THERE!  IT IS BEING CALLED BODYBUILDING, BUT IT IS WAY MORE POPULAR!

it looks JUST LIKE bodybuilding, but it is about getting huge freaky mass . . . I suppose THAt is why they call it "bodybuilding".

Bodybuilding does NOT equal "get the flesh bigger no matter what." There’s bodybuilding the sport of creating an aesthetically competent physique, then there’s this new game that’s been around for 10-15 years. It’s called "manipulate my flesh".

Now I do not discount the HARD HARD work of the "flesh manipulators." But their standards of success are simple: did I manipulate my flesh? Did I continue to a new level of manipulation? How far can I manipulate my shape? Etc., etc.

Again, if guys want to do that, I actually give them a LOT of credit. it is a CRAZY commitment. it even over-rides "normal life" at times.

These guys are the ones who think that there is no upper limit defined by aesthetics. Theirs is a purely numbers game: how many inches around can my legs measure? How many pounds can I weigh? Chasing endlessly bigger proportions is DEFINITELY hard work and a BRUTAL level of commitment . . . but it ain’t bodybuilding.

So, to claim that by sheer merit of being a bodybuilder the presumption is that getting all dimensions bigger is bullsh1t.

The "flesh manipulation game" is defined by "dimensions." Bodybuilding is defined by "proportions."

"Dimensions" are exactly what they sound like: numbers and measurements. They are perceivable by everyone. They are what they are. They go up and down in absolute terms.

Yet "proportions" are about RELATIONAL dimensions. How do dimensions RELATE to one another, relate to the perceiver, and relate to their context. This is what bodybuilders are as athletes: they build the body’s RELATIONAL dimensions, not just the absolute dimensions.

This is where we enter the concept of "aesthetics" versus "appearances." "Appearance" is the description of a physique in terms of it’s dimensions: how much it weighs, how big it measures, etc. But "aesthetics" is a description of HOW THE PHYSIQUE RELATES.

Aesthetics deal with INTRA-relations, like how legs match the arms, how cuts describe balance, etc., as well as INTER-relations, like how the physique is perceived in terms of density, vascularity, symmetry, etc.

So, of you are a bodybuilder, then you are NOT automatically obliged to chase dimensions. THAT IS NOT THE DEFINITION OF A BODYBUILDER. Sure, you may yourself have that mojo to chase bigger size, and that’s cool. But that interest is NOT what DEFINES you as a bodybuilder.

if the intent to maximize and manipulate dimensions was a defining factor to "what makes a bodybuilder", well then a LOT of athletes heralded as "great bodybuilders’ would have to be removed from the list because these athletes did not chase endless dimensional increase.

in fact, if you look CAREFULLY, even through current days there are probably MORE bodybuilders who LIMIT their dimensions for the sake of aesthetic proportionality. Sure, they may continue to "grow" per se, but the best of the best are careful, and do not demand endless growth at the expense of proportional aesthetics.

A true bodybuilder athlete is ALWAYS aesthetics FIRST, dimensional manipulation second.

And to add some perspective, let me qualify this by saying that in my MIND I absolutely fantasize about absurdist dimensions. That bug has NEVER left me. I would LOVE to be able to become that 320 lb 4% bodyfat impossibly built uber-bodybuilder. However, I also know that, in the end I prefer the chase of the aesthetics over just the dimensions. However, I, too, share the mojo for dimensions; I just temper that interest with my sport: bodybuilding. I don’t so much think that "bigger is better," but just simply that "bigger is more fun."

But in the end, what is "better" is bodybuilding.

And bodybuilding is about relational aesthetics, NOT about absolute dimensions.

A "simple plan" is not always the same thing as an "easy plan."  ESPECIALLY in bodybuilding . . .

This was the crux of posting I had made in the forums.  It was addressing the idea of how many meals bodybuilders eat — and how some people struggle with it.  

It ended up being a sort of "mini-primer on food theory".  Sure, there was practical advice, but sort of "anecdotal" stuff.  In the end, though, no matter what you call it, I got a TON of positive feedback about the piece, so decided to blog-o-cize it.

Now, enjoy your meal . . .

First off, understand what is meant by the term "meal" . . .

People hear "eat six, seven, eight meals per day", and then assume that means sitting down with a fork an knife and eating all that food. They believe that every "meal" is about "chewing food."

In some cases, this is CLOSE to accurate, but in reality the term "meal" in physique development has a VERY SPECIFIC MEANING.

Here’s the equations . . . FIRST:

"eating" = "consumption of ANY kind"
which means even protein drinks, snacks — anything outside of a glass of water is considered "eating" in the physique development game. A glass of milk? That’s eating. Anything WITH CALORIC VALUE is to be considered "eating".

SECOND:

"MEAL" = "eating" / "time"
Basically, a "meal" is when you CONSUME according to a TIME component. Nothing radical here — heck "normal" meals also are regulated by time, right? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. . . .

But now HERE IS THE TRICK:

When a bodybuilder or athlete says "I eat SIX MEALS A DAY", they are simply saying "I CONSUME CALORIES AND NUTRIENTS AT SIX TIME-POINTS DURING THE DAY."

Emphasis: CONSUME CALORIES.

Too many people get hung up on the idea that a "meal" MUST be an elaborate affair. Often, there are means of consuming calories that are far less taxing than complex large meals.

One trick is to MEASURE CALORIES. Often, guys will eat what they have always considered a "satisfying meal", and then try to eat that much food six, seven, eight times. Well, when eating more frequently, the strategy is to SPREAD OUT THE CALORIES. Often the meals you consume will NOT be PHYSICALLY satisfying. In fact, they will often leave a little room in your stomach. So, the earlier advice of making the meals smaller makes a LOT of sense. But do not do this randomly. Figure out what your CALORIC BEST INTERESTS are first, THEN divide up your meals.

Now, most people roll their eyes at this point. "Math?" they think. "I don’t want a whole complex deal. I just want to look awesome." Well, bear with it. First of all, you only need use the measuring to get a "basic standard" down. If you are not competing, the math only need last a number of weeks to teach you portion sizing skills. You will NOT be chained to a caloric obligation forever. Man up and do the extra work — it’s YOUR goal you’d be copping out on if you don’t.

Likewise, remember that many bodybuilders will use PRE-WORKOUT, POST WORKOUT, and WAKE-UP drinks, and count them as "meals". I will not here go into the strategies employed by pre, post and waking nutrition, but will say that many bodybuilders use FAST DIGESTING nutrients at these points of the day. If you were to consider these quick-absorbing protein/carb drinks as "consumption which happens at a moment in time," well then you technically have three "meals"; specifically a "pre workout" meal, a "post workout" meal and a "waking" meal. Even though these meals are liquid and easily digested, they still "count" as "meals’ by the definition I provided above.

So a guy who is jacked who says "I eat 7 meals a day" may, in fact, only be "chewing food" four times.

Now, let me say that I am, personally, a STRONG advocate of WHOLE FOOD MAJORITY. I DO NOT LIKE diet schemes that are heavy on the powders and shakes. But I did want to point out that this is often how the "six meals" strategy is accomplished without discomfort; by considering drinks as "meals" because they are "nutrients consumed as a product of time."

So, don’t get mislead. Don’t just take the "eat six, seven, eight meals" advice at face value. ANALYZE CLOSER. So many guys are so horny for a "quick solution" that they don’t bother to deconstruct a suggestion, and then get saddled following a piece of advice that is not only uncomfortable, but ultimately counter-productive.

Yes, being "stuffed’ can work AGAINST you. It is a stresser on the body. And guess what the #1 catabolic (destructive) force is on a physique’s musculature? That’s right, stress. So being stuffed is NOT a good thing for a dude trying to grow. You may get an "A" for effort in eating the meals, but a flat-out "D" for doing what is wise for growth. We’re not trying to BE all about hardcore determination, here; the goal is just simply to grow, be it through hardcore determination or not. And most often, forceful methods cause the body more destructive stress than they do constructive benefit.

And on that note, I have to say that a "being stuffed" problem seems bio-physical, so to speak. One true thing is that the stomach is a remarkably elastic organ. It can grow several times it’s original size. Imagine it like a regular old balloon. If you pick up a balloon and try to blow it up, it will be a little difficult; the rubber is stiff and it needs to "loosen up" before it can stretch maximally with little effort. This is why people often tug and pre-stretch a balloon before blowing it up. It "warms up" the rubber and allows the balloon to expand maximally. Then, if you deflate the balloon, it does not return to it’s ORIGINAL deflated size. It is just a little bit bigger; a little more stretched out than it was originally. If you were to keep blowing up the balloon and deflating it, eventually it’s "resting" size would be quite larger than it was originally.

The stomach behaves similarly to that balloon. You can stretch it until it begins to "loosen up". So, the LONGER you eat several meals, the more your stomach becomes "stretched" to accommodate that level of food. Comfort GRADUALLY sets in. This process takes at least a month or two; therefore, as with ALL THINGS in bodybuilding, A LOT OF PATIENCE IS REQUIRED.

One not-too-cool trick people occasionally use is to stretch the stomach is to drink lots of water at one moment. I mean a LOT. I do NOT mean all day, but maybe just every few mornings, guzzle down a lot of water. This is an "okay" trick (and one I use the day after a contest so I can enjoy my inevitable end-of-diet celebratory pig-out), but it is NOT the best solution., Your healthiest option is a gradual method, allowing your stomach to slowly get used to it.

Don’t evaluate the method on just one day’s experience, or even a couple days experience. This eating habit is NOT an overnight adjustment, in spite of how people often regard it. Sure, your MIND doesn’t think it will be difficult; it is, after all, such a SIMPLE solution. But when put in practice, the advice takes on a number of elements you never would have foreseen without prior experience. Often the simplest things are the most challenging.

In the end LOOK CLOSER at the suggestions and advice which you choose to follow. NEVER take a quick solution as the best solution. if a plan SEEMS super-straightforward and simple, then that should almost an INSTANT red-flag for you to anticipate unforeseen snags. Like all of life, but seemingly ESPECIALLY in bodybuilding, a "simple plan" is rarely the same thing as an "easy plan".

How many pebbles would you need to throw to knock down the Great Wall?  Heck — how many pebbles would you need to throw to even make a dent?

I need to know.  Why?  Well, you see, that guy down there — the one chucking pebbles at the wall?  Yeah, that’s me.

I believe that the SPORT of bodybuilding is a powerful and brilliant endeavor.  Yet I am also convinced that the sport is lost and buried behind the Great Wall of the industry, the media, and the competitive “powers that be.”  In short, we have a sport with NO RULE BOOK being practiced by people who claim expertise.  If there are no rules, then how can one be an expert?  Fling — there goes one of those pebbles . . .

Now, there ARE base rules and practices to the sport.  They have just not yet been academically delineated and published under peer review and approval.  The only thing CLOSE to standards that we currently have are based on PRIVATELY OWNED regulations.  They are not impartial, and thus not fair.  Each league has it’s own “version” of the sport.  No one has the same rules.  How can this sport be regulated without a standard set of rules for practice?  

The answer: it can’t.  it would be like McDonald’s owning the police force.  If McDonald’s was the police, well, just imagine what would happen if a Burger King got held up . . .

Fling . . . another pebble.

Ironically, if you ask for rules and criteria for judging, you rarely get clear, academic standards.  Most often, all leagues will offer is some arbitrary verbal explanation that is not only convoluted, but often self-contradicting.  it’s like they’re making it up off the top of their head.  The few that can offer a written document (and VERY FEW CAN offer one), it is equally vague, and often uses terms that are not defined within the document itself, making it essentially ineffective as an explanation.

So, here I sit, on the OTHER side of that wall, flinging pebbles.  Given enough time, i’ll make SOME sort of dent.

In the meantime, I am trying to incorporate voices from the OTHER side of the wall in my radio show and podcast.  (If you’ve been asleep at the wheel, I have a podcast called The big Inside — listen to episodes art thebiginside.com, or subscribe for free on iTunes.)  I figure that relevant voices might add some power, and turn pebbles into rocks.

One of the first notable voices will be Eddie Robinson.  Eddie wiill be on The Big Inside on the Monday January 7th broadcast (the podcast version will be uploaded to the site a day or two after the airing).

Eddie is no stranger to the “game” of the bodybuilding world.  He has been awash in the arena for nearly two decades.  Sure, it’s obvious he was not among the most “integral” (a.k.a., “non-drug-using”) bodybuilders when he was at his height.  But much of his decision to pull back from the IFBB heights was based on the insanity of the demands.  

On the program, I do not intend to herald him as some sort of unsung hero of bodybuilding reform.  Yet I also do not intend to roast him alive, either.  Those who know my “style” know I am pretty sharp at “pulling responses” from people (which is a polite way of saying I am a brilliant conversational saboteur when I am getting fed a line of crap).  My pebbles may not harm the Great Wall of the IFBB, but once I separate a warrior, a single pebble can easily take down a mighty Goliath.

Yet that is not my aim.  My bag of pebbles are saved for that massive wall of bullsh1t, behind which is hidden the authentic sport of bodybuilding.  So, I have no intention of beaning Eddie square between the eyes.  

No no.  It is much more useful to hand him his OWN bag of pebbles . . .

I find that, when allowed to toss, most people also take aim at the Great Walls of nonsense in their lives.  Eddie and I may not share similar paths, or even similar goals.  But on The Big Inside, we’re all about the HUMAN journey.  And since the Great Wall of the IFBB is about anything EXCEPT for human compassion, well, Eddie need not even have a contrary opinion to be of use in the war to set bodybuilding upright.

In short, I am excited to talk to him.  Indeed, on a total side note, I remember Eddie from my teenage years from the old mags.  He was — among others — notorious for over-the-top, in-your-face photo shoots — the kind that romanticize bodybuilding as uber-heroic and where SOMEHOW guys who wore daisy-duke cut-offs, stripe spandex hot shorts and string Y-back tanktops all looked, well, TOUGH instead of cheesy.  

Eddie Robinson’s image was profoundly controlled.  He was always represented as both over-the-top as well as almost a goofball.  (But MOSTLY as over-the-top.)  He was part of a media generation that made bodybuilding a bigger-then-life series of mythological characters.  

In the media, Eddie’s generation (with Matarazzo, DeMay, Quinn, DeMayo, Baker, etc.) was about the imagery of the bodybuilding MYTH that got built up from the Schwarzenegger/Zane/Ferrigno/Columbo media that focused on the LEGENDS surrounding the sport.  

Legends (the attainable destination) became transformed into myths (the unattainable goal) during the era Robinson was big in the IFBB.  What is it like to be part of THAT media machine?  And wasn’t this same sort of media skewing a large part of the problem we now have today — that there is a lack off standard in the sport?  Did not the myth-touting larger-than-life boys of the late 80’s and early-to-mid 90’s set a stage for a sloppier competitive field?  Were they just obeying a mandate, or are they culpable for perhaps having laid some bricks into the Great Wall itself, thus helping hide away the "authentic version" of the sport for the next generations?

Fling.

You see, people like Eddie become important to interview because they will shed light on these questions, if not perhaps offer viable answers.

Although it may at first, on the surface, seem like I am "fraternizing with the enemy," when you take a closer look and understand the focus it is actually about building an ally.  Regardless of whether Eddie Robinson — or Lee priest or ANY of the upcoming "bodybuilding and training insiders" — agree with my standpoint, their willingness to share and speak and talk frankly is where their value comes in.

Each word from their lips becomes another pebble for my hands.

And lord knows it’s gonna take a lot more before that damn wall finally starts to crack.

REMEMBER: LISTEN TO XN’S INTERVIEW WITH IFBB PRO EDDIE ROBINSON ON THE BIG INSIDE PODCAST, FOUND AT THEBIGINSIDE.COM.  (Episode # TBI-009, available after 1/8/08.)

He’s 5′10".  Maybe 5′11".  Juiced to the gills, his traps start at his ears.  He’s got a skull cap pulled low, or maybe some buzzed spiky hair number going; $30 in product, easy.  Either way, those eyebrows are a little TOO waxed . . .

He’s got a tribal tattoo . . . that SAME tribal tattoo worn by every guy worried that people might mistake them for not being "one of the cool guys."  

He’s 242 pounds, all shoulders.  he claims to like MMA/ultimate fighting.  His stomach looks like a galapagos turtle.  No matter where he sits, he slouches.

And he leans into the mike and growls in a tone of voice which he practiced in his bathroom mirror for months . . .

"I’m gonna win.  I know it.  I’m confident.  I don’t compete to lose.  I don’t see how I am gonna lose.’"

Then there’s a pause.  A silence where no one QUITE knows what to say.  Should we agree?  Should we let him know that he is a little lost?  Or do we just praise him, pretending this personality-less ball of beef is supposedly a true bodybuilding hero . . . ?

Well it doesn’t matter how we regard him.  Lord knows another one will be in front of the microphone next week.  We can figure it out then.

Or the next week after that.

Or the next.

Ahh yes . . . the endless chain of videos, podcasts and "shows" that are supposedly catching the "essence" of physique sports.  We know them well . . boring, poorly edited, endlessly repetitive, and the same old schtick over and over.

Of course, in between these bipedal moose who interview like crap we also occasionally get the inane supplement review (N-O supplements have been around since 1982 . . . are they REALLY a "new" pump?!), or maybe a feature from an embittered, opinionated, science-horny hard-ass who can say without a doubt that "everyone else does it wrong."

Imagine if that know-it-all told the "I don’t see how I can lose" juicebag he was doing it wrong?!  THAT would be an interesting show!  That kind of mayhem would be a show FINALLY worth tuning in for!

And good news, kiddies!  THAT SHOW IS FINALLY HERE!

Bodybuilding podcasts are usually either absurdist, boring or dry — or worse: a comination of absurdist, boring AND dry!  

How the HECK are we supposed to sit through them?  THIS is meant to motivate?  

Wake me when they turn off.

Or better yet, tune into MY new podcast, THE BIG INSIDE!

What the . . . ?  “XN IS IT TRUE?!” you are asking.  “You took your sarcastic bodybuilding blog schtick and put it to the airwaves?”

Yes, my loyal readers (all three of you), it’s true.  Now, not only can you READ my mispelled ramblings, you can also LISTEN to my mispronounced ramblings!

It’s The Big Inside . . . and it is the biggest physique challenge you can experience while using ONLY your ears.  

AND I NEED YOUR SUPPORT!  PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE CAST, OR CALL IN TO THE SHOW!  (I will explain how to do THAT a bit later . . . read on . . . )

Now, so you can rest assured, I WON’T EVER be having “that guy” on the program . . . you know, that dude I described earlier: the boring, steroid-busted bodybuilder who is deluded with his own Flex magazine fantasies . . . well, not unless we can poke fun at him.  Then he’s welcome.

Meanwhile, we WILL be having interviews with VERY cool people doing VERY cool things in the physique world.  People like you.  

And we won’t throw crazy science out there and expect you to follow along.  Who wants to have to take notes while listening?  No, we want to get you motivated and informed — but not try to cram a physiology degree into 12 minutes!  In other words, we’ll talk to you NORMAL.

You know, like you were not only an athlete, but like you were also A HUMAN BEING.

THIS IS YOUR SHOW MY FRIENDS!  And I want it guided by YOU!!!  (So email me SOON with ideas: info@thebiginside.com)

And we will laugh, my friends.  Oh yes.  And if there is nothing to laugh at, well, we’ll laugh at ourselves.  I find learning new stuff is SO much easier when you’re having a good time.  Tell THAT to dry Mr. Embittered “Pro Trainer” Smarty-Pants Man.

In short, The Big Inside will be turning the physique world inside out.  Sort of like what I do in this blog.  

So, if you are one of the nine human beings on the planet who actually LIKE what I do here on “Big is Inside”, you’ll LOVE when my weird insights and snide remarks come at you in REAL TIME!  (Ahh, yes . . let the law suits begin!)

The coolest part is that you can CALL IN AND GET INTO THE SHOW!  I’ll explain that later . . . but first you might need to how how to even listen to the darn thing.

There are lots of ways to listen . . .

Go to www.thebiginside.com.  There you can click “show notes’, and you’ll get a list of all the episodes.  Click on the episode you want to hear and — voila! — you are whisked away in a cloud of protein powder to the episode of your choice.  Free for the taking!

If you have actually made it into the new millenia with the rest of us, you have iTunes.  In the iTunes Store, you can do a search for “The Big inside” and the show is under podcasts.  Download away!  Or better yet, SUBSCRIBE TO IT!  Then you get each new episode as it airs . . . cool . . .  And be sure to LEAVE A REVIEW! (Meanwhile, if you don’t yet even HAVE iTunes, well, get with it — my show is reason enough to finally break down and download it for yourself.)

The show airs LIVE on 1510 The Zone, Boston’s Sports Station — the Boston area’s “alternative” sports radio (meaning they have cool shows).  Every Monday night at 5:00pm (eastern time).  So if you want the beauty of LIVE radio, you can just go to the website, www.1510thezone.com, and turn on the live feed.

IF YOU LISTEN LIVE ON MONDAYS, YOU CAN EVEN CALL IN!  Seriously.  ANYONE CAN CALL IN AT ANY TIME.  Questions, opinions, thoughts — or just to harass us live.  

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To deadlift or not to deadlift?  DOES a bodybuilder REALLY need to deadliftingt?  Deadlifting is for powerlifters, isn’t it?  You know those guys; the slightly nerdy mountain men with barrel chests and disregard for "ab definition."  

So MUST a bodybuilder deadlift?  

And for that matter, do I ABSOLUTELY need to squat to get big wheels?  Is there ANOTHER way, or are squats a MUST?

And what about snatches, jerks, cleans, good mornings, roman chairs, decline press, dips, preacher curls, cable cross, hamstring curls . . . and on . . . and on . . .

Do I NEED to do certain exercises?

Well, this week, I pulled something in his back — NO not from lifting.  Just s minor pull, just due to my usual being a clown.  But this little temporary boo-boo prompted some smart-ass kid to ask, “do you think it’s because you do deadlifts?”

Short answer: “No.”

But then they came back with: “Well, does a bodybuilder even NEED to do deadlifts?”  And THIS question reminded me of a thread in the forums — and a topic that REALLY gets my wheels turning.    

I so often see this doubt from people about the power movements.  There is always this lingering line of questions . . . all revolving around “whether it’s necessary to do power exercises.”

When asking “should I do such-and-such exercise?” it is kind of like you are at 100 feet up in the air, looking down at the problem.  From this height, you are able to look at one particular exercise.  And this vantage point is useful; it may help you figure out the efficacy of THAT ONE exercise.

But even if an exercise is “effective”, does it mean EVERY lifter MUST incorporate that lift in their program?  And how does one know whether squats or deads or any power exercise is “really necessary” . . . ?

Well, instead of looking at the specific exercise (whether it’s right to squat, or clean, or do deads), try to look at a bigger version of things. Y ou need to get up to 1,000 or 10,000 feet up to really see the lay of the land . . .

From up there you can not only get the facts, you can BUILD A THEORY . . . Which is a better process in general.

ALL BODYBUILDING METHODOLOGY IS BASED IN THEORY.

Let me repeat . . .

Now, a LOT of people are probably not gonna buy that.  All bodybuilding is THEORY?  "No way DUDE!  ALL the top guys are ALWAYS on abotu science!  It ain’t THEORY, man!"  

Many folks are convinced; they want to believe that solid bodybuilding is based on fact, not theory.

Well, by saying bodybuilding is based in theory, we are nOT throwing our scientific fact.  Indeed, we NEED scientific fact to even have solid theories.  All the most solid THEORIES of bodybuilding are, in fact, based in scientific facts.  One must USE science to SUPPORT a theory.

But in the end, your bodybuilding –from the 10,000 feet view — is only ever just theory.  

To see how this is so, let’s be clear on what a theory IS.  A theory (simply put) is anything:

- you can SHOW TO BE CONSISTANTLY TRUE
- you can NOT 100% PROVE TO BE TRUE
- you can NOT 100% PROVE IS WRONG.

For example, one very popular theory applied in bodybuilding doesn’t even SOUND like a theory:

"Individuals will best progress by determining unique specifics of to do their individual work."  Or, in short, This is what people are referencing when they say "do what works for you."

This "do whjat works for you" concept is actually just a theory.  Think about it . . . we have TONS of proof to show it is accurate and consistant.  Meanwhile, we can also see how there is NO final way to prove this theory is 100% true 100% of the time.  However, you also can’t totally PROVE that this theory might be untrue.  Some may disagree with the theory, but that alone does not prove that it is false.

Now, like I mentioned before, good bodybuilding theory can be supported by FACT — typically science.  Two different bodybuilders may take a fact and build two different theories based on that fact, but the fact itself remain the same.  

For example, let’s look at a couple theories behind deadlifting . . .

Some bodybuilders emply deadlifts because "deadlifting builds core strength, which you need for stability in OTHER lifts."  This is based on the FACTS of which muscles get worked in the deadlift movement.  And logically, to get bigger, you need to have ALL your lifts be powerful, so the deadlift is a means to encouraging this advancement of other lifts.  According to this theory, a bodybuilder would use deadlifts almost as a means of "cross training," sort of similar to how a football player might employ deadlifts.

Yet other bodybuilders theorize that "heavyt deadlifts build mass."  This theory is based on the FACT that deadlifts cause a HUGE neurological impact on the body — an impact that triggers adaptation and growth.  So, here, a bodybuilder might treeat deadlifts similar to a powerlifter, shooting for a maximal lift.  Deadlifts become their own focus in the training.

Two different theories, both based in fact, and both are valid.  Both provide an athlete with a "template" for how to use the exercise in question — in this case, deadlifts.  They result in two different approaches, and although the two are not in perfect agreement, both bring results and both can be defended by fact and logic.  

When you see people arguing on "which method is better" and "which exercise is a must," they are NOT discussing facts, they are discussing THEORIES.  This is also true in dieting issues, and even in discussions of steroid ethics.  people can USE facts to SUPPORT theories, but in the end, all we have is our theory.

This is why there has yet to be one "master plan" in bodybuilding.  The broader your vision — the higher up you go to 10,000 feet, 20,000 feet or even higher — the more you see how the landscape is theories.  It’s sort of like the borders between countries or states.  The "line" between Nevada and New Mexico is imaginary; it was drawn on a map.  The LAND is a fact — it exists.  But the LINE drawn across the land, well, that is just a theory . . .

Now, you can not determine the borders on the ground when you are only 100 feet up.  That is not enough of a view; how do I know if I am in Canada or Greenland?  Is this Brazil or Lima?  Am I standing in France or Spain?  To know where you are, or where you want to be — you need a view that is REALLY HIGH up.  

Bodybuilding is like the land, and our theories are like the borders we draw on the map.  And, like any borders drawn, there will ALWAYS be arguments and border skirmishes . . .

Some people think that their theories on lifting are the BEST ones.  They are tired and frustrated with how the other theories work.  They run campaigns of attack, thinking their borders should be expanded . . . their land should be bigger.  They try to conquer neighboring lands — trying to push their theory forward towards becoming a "bodybuilding theory empire."  They use facts upon facts to attack other theories . . . sometimes ruthlessly.  And sometimes needlessly.  Because just like the real world, some borders are just fine left alone.  Some theories work fine all by themself.

However, when you get high up you can also see theories that are just plain wrong.  Bad theories use innacurate facts as support, use poor logic int heir construction, or can be PROVEN wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yet some people still stick with these theories anyway, and even defend them . . .

and then, sometimes, a GOOD theory can BECOME BAD!  A lot of guys base their lifting on what other people tell them.  They just take plans and suggestions from other people and trust that they are "good."  The people who they got the plans from may have themselves been using solid, sound theories, but often lifters don’t bother learning that.  They just want a lifting plan.  "Tell me what to do," they say. "But I don’t have time to learn WHY . . . "

If you just lift without knowing the THEORY behind WHY you are doing what you are doing, then that is just as bad as  a BAD THEORY.   A good lifting theory that you do not understand is automatically a bad theory.  If your theory is based on "copying what I saw," then that is also BAD theory.

You wouldn’t live in Moscow without owning winter clothes.  You wouldn’t live in New Mexico without having a water supply.  You wouldn’t live in Paris without learning French.  When you live in a country, there are certain things you need to do to live there . . .

And bodybuilding is the same way.  You should not adopt a lifting method unless you knwo the theory BEHIND it . . . you should not use a lift unless you have a theory which addresses that lift.  

I find a lot of new lifters do not have ANY solid theories working for them. Instead, they try to mimic and copy what they see around them. Then they see something nthat is new to them (like you with deadlifts) and try to incoporate it. They take everything in the gym on a case-by-case basis.

This will get you only so far. Eventually, you need to develop (or at least align with) solid theories. These theories will help you determine what exercises to use, how to use them, and why.

So, for example, I hold to the theory that "anything which builds the body’s strength can be useful for mass gain." This theory is not radical — MANY people most likely hold similar "master theories" in their workout methodologies. it is pretty basic — but pretty useful.

But think about what this theory now allows me to determine. When it comes to ANY exercise, all I have to assess is if it can be used to build my strength. My theory can take me the rest of the way there.

Deadlifts can be shown — through fact AND anecdotal evidence — to build strength. If my training methodology employs the above theory that "anything that builds strength can be useful for mass gain", then I know to use deadlifts.

I do not need to ask "if" I should use them. My master theory — which is solid and based in fact — tells me whether or not I should.

I am NOT addressing the usefulness of deadlifts in this blog. Nor am I trying to address the relationship between strength and mass gain. Nor am I explaining HOW to use deadlifts. I am just trying to address how to answer those "should I or shouldn’t I" types of questions.

All bodybuilding is based in theory. KNOW WHAT THEORIES YOU ARE WORKING WITH. This mode of thinking will not only answer many questions, it will likewise take you much further in your bodybuilding than trying to work everything on a case by case basis.

Not to mention that operating under solid theory will save you a LOT of time.  It is like seeing the landscape from 10,000 feet.

You FEEL small.  And you know how THAT goes.  That low feeling like you’ve shrunk, or like you’re suddenly not quite so jacked any more . . . or like you just aren’t gaining the BIG size you want . . .

You know how it is to "feel small" . . .

But there’s a funny thing to remember about feelings.  Feelings come to pass, they don’t come to stay.  (Even when how they “feel” is the ONLY thing a bodybuilder wants to talk about: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/The_Real_XN/2007/03/23/bodybuilders-are-the-most-sensitive-dudes-i-
know/)

So if you keep having a sense that you’re small, you have to remember that sense is NOT actually a feeling.  That sense of “small” is actually coming from your HEAD.  It is a THOUGHT that you are stuck in — THINKING you are small.  And those thoughts bring up feelings, sure.  And like I said, feelings pass — usually relatively quickly.  But thoughts?  Well, THOUGHTS are what stick around.

Keep nurturing a thought, and it gets stronger.  Starve it and neglect a thoght, and it eventually dies out.

You USED to feed thoughts of confidence.  You used to do things and dress in ways that fed your strongest, most heroic thoughts.  

But right now, you’re choosing to feed the thoughts of smallness.  You think those thoughts so intensely that you beging to BELIEVE your small — thoughts so strong you swear you can “feel” it.

Soon, you believe it: “CRAP!” you think.  “I AM SO SMALL THESE DAYS . . . !”

And then you start to compensate.

You start wearing baggy clothes.  You start debating heavy drugs.  You spend tons of money oon supplements — WAY past your budget.  You lift poundages that not only leave you open to get hurt, they aren’t putting you ahead . . .

But all through all these things you just KEEP FEELING SMALL.  All these compansations are just feeding those thoughts.  You think you are small, you choose loose clothes, and this REMINDS YOUR BRAIN ALL DAY that you think you are small . . . like, how can you abandon a thought if you are WEARING a constant reminder of it?

Changing thoughts SEEMS hard, but it is actually as easy as changing clothes . . . which in THIS case may be the start ot the process.

This is a thought plaguing you, though.  It is NOT a “feeling”.  

YOU CAN NOT CONTROL FEELINGS.  But you CAN CONTROL THOUGHTS.

You ave a choice where you put your energies . . . you have a choice what you focus on, and where you put your attention.

Put your attention on all the things that remind you of being small, and sure enough, you will think small thoughts most of your day.  

Put your attention on things that make you think BIG, and soon you will be back to believing you are of INCREDIBLE size and quality.

No one can TELL you you are big.  Big is INSIDE.  Big is not a set of feelings . . . it is a set of thoughts and beliefs.  Big is something bodybuilders DO, not necessarily always something we ARE.  It is something you think, not always something you see.  Big is something you BELIEVE.

And, via bodybuilding, your body is a way of EXPRESSING those big beliefs.  

What was it that made you think big in the past?  What brings your big OUT to the world to witness?

Was it the pump in your pecs after a heavy bench?

Was it when you wear that one killer tank that fits just oh-so-right?

Is it when you advance in strength at the gym, and write down a BIGGER number in your log?

Is it when you dream, about your big future?  Dreams are just big thoughts about the big stuff that hasn’t yet happened . . . do dreams of mass and powerful strength in the future bring your big out?

WHAT BRINGS YOUR BIG OUT?  What thoughts are big for you?

And then, once you recall those big thoughts, now go relocate the BEHAVIORS that encourage those thoughts.

Bodybuilding is not a sport of thinking.  Bodybuilding is also not a sport of “feeling”.  Bodybuilding is a sport of DOING.  it is not just enought o have big thoughts . . . you also have to ENCOURAGE those big thoughts in your behavior . . .

Wearing baggy clothes encourages SMALL thoughts.  Those thoughts bum you out.  That low feeling is a FEELING.  And it would go away . . . except you keep getting reminded of small thoughts because of what you’re wearing . . . . those reminders then keep you THINKING about small . . . and then you get that low feeling . . . and it would pass EXCEPT for the fact that you’re still in those clothes . . .

And on and on.

See the vicious cycle?

It is NOT your feelings that are the problem.  Those feelings would just as easily go away quickly.    VERY QUICKLY.  Then be gone . . .

The problem is your THOUGHTS.  You are NOT doing enough to REMIND YOURSELF TO THINK BIG.  And you are doing TOO MUCH THAT MAKES YOU THINK SMALL.  Your thoughts are trapping you the maze . . .

Start picking things to do that bring back those big thoughts.

But it is ABOUT THE DOING.  Like even now — DON’T JUST SIT HERE READING AND THINKIN!  Get your butt up!  GO DO THINGS THAT MAKE YOU THINK BIG!

Go lift something!

Go change clothes!

Go hit poses!

GO DO THE STUFF THAT REMINDS YOU OF THE BIG INSIDE!

And then that big on the inside will come outside . . .

And you’ll feel definitely feel that.

"Natural bodybuilding" is done for.  It’s FINISHED folks.  Over.  Pack it up.

"Natural bodybuilding" doesn’t stand a chance.   Neither does "drug free" bodybuilding for that matter.

And I for one am RIGHT THERE to see it go, tossing out the bon voyage confetti and HAPPY to see it set sail.  LATER!  Good-bye!  Asta asta asta, baby!  No more "natural bodybuilding"!  HOORAY!

And while we’re at it, let’s toss "enhanced", "juiced" and "Clean" on the bonfire as well, shall we?

Time to face reality, people: the SPORT ain’t going anywhere, but the TERMS we use are old, clunky relics from a by-gone agenda that, quiote frankly is meaningless.  This  CLASSIFICATION system we currently use is broken, meaningless and FOOLISH to continue employing.  It is a farce of reasoning, a denial of logic, and the FURTHEST THING from academically substantiated.

Bodybuilders so OFTEN toss out their science-horny reasoning, and claim that solid research and logical study is our backbone.  We are SO proud of our smarter-than-thou science, and are VERY quick to demand back-up references and PROOF of every new idea out there.  

Yet meanwhile, in spite of being SO profoundly horny for science, science, SCIENCE! we are still meanwhile using a classification system for defining “natural” that is about as flawed as they come.  It is the LEAST scientific thing we have — yet we use it VERY AGGRESSIVELY!

No academic authority worth their salt would take the term “natural bodybuilding” as a SERIOUS classification.  It would mush like play-doh under scrutiny of definition.  

Like I said, “natural bodybuilding” on the endangered species list.

And I say: GOOD RIDDANCE!

When you look at classification systems, the BEST and most accurate systems are usually ones are not judgemental.  The BEST systems of classification to not IMPLY anything beyond category.

An alphabetical classification does not favor the letter "M" as more "ideal" than the letter "V".  

The word "heterosexual" does not by itself imply a "correctness" over the word "homosexual."  

The scientific classification of "feline" does not claim to be "anti-canine."

So, understand that the term "natural" is impotent and useless.  It is a relic from a time frame and an attitude that does not always apply to today’s athletes.  It is based more int political righteousness than in clear, concise reasoning.

It saddens me to see the term "natural" used so aggresively by those who simultaneously put themselves out there as leaders in the sport.  I myself slip up and use the word "natural" from time to time — not because I believe in it, but out of force of habit.  Meaning that it is HARD to change our language.  New terminology ALWAYS causes static.  Yet it is the LEADERS who will make the most profound impact in correcting this miscatagroization.  Or rather, I should call it a NON categorization . . . if "natural" can mean almost anything to anyone, based solely on the whims of what they WANT it to mean, then therefore "natural" actually means nothing.

"Natural" often ONLY means they "passed a drug test."  Not that that test was accurate, or that it was even conducted perfectly.

"Drug free" does not address a lot of the "steroid like supplements" currently out there on the market.

"Clean" . . . well that is just a flat out UGLY way to describe something.  

And besides, sometimes of these bodybuilders who use these terms — "natural", "drug free", "clean" (ugh!), etc. — are athletes who can not actually be considered to have done it "ONLY by the means integral to their innate human ability."  

When you classify it THAT way, things shift a little . . .

"Integral" bodybuilding is pursuing practices that are within the realm of your human capacities, or which reasonably mimic those capacities.  In other words, if you could (in theory) kill it, pick it, cook it and eat it, then it falls within the realm of INTEGRAL bodybuilding.

All the -drol supplements, and the andros and other similar hormone products are NOT things you could INGEST by YOUR OWN HUMAN CAPACITIES.  there is nothing you could pick, kill or eat that would supply these substances.  It is ANCILLARY to your abilities.

"Ancillary" bodybuilding is pursuing practices that fall OUTSIDE of your human capacities.  This not only includes supplements described above, but also steroids and growth and all the other thinggs you could not technically "find, kill and eat" all by yourself.

Things like SYNTHETIC vitamin C are still considered integral.  Even though it is manufactured in a factory, the substance "vitamin C" is still within your INTEGRAL abilities to consume.  So the source does NOT dictate whether it is integral or ancillary.

This therefore covers things like the aminos (glutamine, taurine, creatine, etc.) that people supplement.  Although the "powder form" is made by a factory, the "ability to consume" these substances is still within your human ability.  Likewise with other substances such as caffeine, tryptophan and even the improperly maligned ephedra.  If it can be consumed as a food source then it falls within the bounds of "integral" to your innate ability.

All told, the whole idea that "natural is how you define it" is finally going extinct.  SLOWLY.  The "natural" bodybuilder is is becoming a relic — the terminology is an endangered species.  Too mired in morality, politics and personal preference, it no longer means anything substantial.

Hence newer, more understandable criteria like "integral" versus "ancillary."  

The leagues, however, will take time to catch up and catch on.  Leagues move slow, and are operating on a judicial and business model established a few decades ago.  In short, leagues can NOT be reasonably seen as the definers — or DEFENDERS — of these terms.  Do NOT look to leagues for any clear understanding of what it means to be natural . . . because the term "natural" is itself undecipherable.

As a bodybuilder, we all make the choice of whether to use ancillary methods, or stick with our integral methods.  The ethical dilemma can be compared to taking Viagara.  If a man takes Viagara to have sex, iis the sex now considered "unnatural"?  Of course not.  However, the man DID use an ancillary method to HAVE that sex.  This was his choice.  

Whatever morality or authenticity one prescribes to these methos remains their own.  The fact of the matter is that there are two CLEAR categories.  All these sub-terms — "Natural", "Clean", "Drug Free", "Juiced," "Augmented", etc. — they all imply IMBALANCE.  They imply heirarchy (upper, lower), morality (good, bad), ethics (better, worse), politics (ours, theirs), and a number of other perspectives that are NOT based on clear classification.  

"Natural" is often politicized, and IMPLIES one is "anti-steroids."

"Enhanced" implies that these users of pharmeceuticals are "better" than others.

"Clean" implies others are "dirty."

The terms we currently use IMPLY a lot, but SAY very little.  Which is why a departure from these terms is necessary ON THE GRASS ROOTS LEVEL.  Just by YOURSELF you must be more selective in how you categorize your bodybuilding.  Use a NEUTRAL term, yet a DESCRIPTIVE one.

The  terms "integral" and "ancillary" can be used OUT of context, and their MEANING remains understandable.  Of course these meanings are not yet COMMON — all new language takes time to catch on — but they are at least EASY to understand, and therefore QUICKLY usable.  

Perhaps we can all "begin being leaders" and begin changing our own language.  Just you — as an individual.  Start speaking and classifying things CLEARLY.  Start making your OWN choice to clear up confusion.  It won’t cost you anything.  We use the same amount of breath to say these words.  Within a few weeks you may even become completely accustomed to saying these new terms.  Sure, we may have to stop and occasionally EXPLAIN these terms to people, but that need to stop and explain will fade sooner than you think.

Change language and you change understanding.  Change understanding and you change people.  Change people and you change society.  Change society and you can change the world.

Even if it is only the world of bodybuilding.

Be it ancillary OR the integral.

How to get an impressive "teardrop" shape to the quads . . . how to make that happen . . . ?

I have mulled this one over for over a week now.  I am trying to wrap my brain around it, actually.  It’s like ANY "spot development."  I have been asked for specific arm routines, specific adb routines, specific jaw muscle routines (see, I can talk a lot, so people want to know just HOW I developed a yapper that just NEVER seems to fatique . . . I tell ‘em "that’s nuthin’ — you should see my BLOGS go on and on . . . )

See, I HAVE to admit something: I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO DO FOR A SPECIFIC BODY PART.  

Routine?  

You want a really hard hamstring ROUTINE?  

A killer calf routine

A monstrous bicep blitz ROUTINE?

Heck — the only routines I know involve 60 to 90 second of cued music and posing . . .

But I want to GET you guys SOMETHING.  I want to ANSER all your questions about lat width routines and rear delt routines and left shin routines and . . . well you get it.  I WANT TO BE USEFUL.

And it all came to a head with ONE SPECIFIC REQUEST FOR A TEARDROP SHAPED QUAD.  It came from a mamber whose handle is iBswole:
“hey man - do you have any tips on developing the tear drop muscle? I know the quads grow as a whole but mine are severely lacking. I’ve recenlty encorporated vince goronda frog squats on the hack squat machine - on my toes heels together etc. Would appreciate the advice thanx. ”

Wait — Vinnie Gondola who?  Toes in ballerina position numer six?  Wait — DID I MISS SOMETHING?  Clearly iBswole has done his homework — and done it well.  But I PANICKED!  Here I am with something he wants help with, and he is running circles around me!  

JUST WHO THE HELL IS THE COMEPTITIVE BODYBUILDER SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, ANYWAY?!  I have no ADVICE?  I have no pre-written ROUTINE for the mighty teardrop quad?  WHAT GIVES?  WHO THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO BE?!?!?  

And my world comes crashing in around me . . . I am a sham . . . I am a farce . . . I am a charletain . . .

No — wait a sec.  I am an athlete.  That’s all.  

Not a fake.  

Not a goon.

Not a quack.

Just an athlete.  A plain old bodybuilding athlete.

See, I am not just a bodybuilder, I am a SPECIFIC KIND of bodybuilder: one who COMPETES.  As such, my “sport” of bodybuilding is NOT about how my body looks.

“Wait, wait, wait,” you must be thinking, “Now just HOLD ON A SECOND!  XN, are you trying to tell us that BODYBUILDING IS NOT ABOUT HOW YOU LOOK?!  Are you freakin’ NUTS?”

Well, yes of COURSE I am nuts.  But that is NOT why I am saying what I am saying.  

The SPORT of competitive bodybuilding is about PRESENTING A PHYSIQUE AESTHETIC.  As far as the competition is concerned, it is NOT about how big you are — it is about HOW WELL YOU PRESENT A CONCEPT OF DENSITY.  It is NOT about how lean you are — it is about HOW WELL YOU PRESENT A CONCEPT of VASCULARITY.  It is NOT about how you “look.”  It is about how you PRESENT an aesthetic.

So, a GOOD bodybuilding athlete is really a good PRESENTER of a physique NO MATTER WHAT THAT PHYSIQUE IS ALL ABOUT.

Now, CERTAINLY if you have a lot of mass and sharp cuts, this enhances your job of presentation.  But in the end, the skills I focus on are the skills of solid presentation.  And so THIS becomes my focus in the gym, out of the gym, and with ALL my training.  

For me, this is not about image.  This is about athletics.  And as such there is a mandate I follow with my training.  I approach all my work with ONE MAJOR DIRECTIVE:

“HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY PRESENTATION?”

I do NOT focus on “how does this or that part of me look right now.”  I TRAIN FOR A SPORT, and not for a “look”.  

Then, my body develops accordingly.

Kind of like how gymnasts often have incredible shoulders.

Or how swimmers have great backs.

Or how sprinters will have thick quads.

Or how wrestlers will have sturdy abs.

If an athlete focuses their training on overall ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE in their sport, the BODY WILL FOLLOW SUIT and assume a shape appropriate to that sport.

So, my training is focused on “game day.”  It is focused on presenting.  So, therefore, my training “routines” are perhaps very different from what a guy or gal might do to “get a look.”  I have to worry about performance and ability and skill — not just mass and cuts.  I have to focus all my training tactics on whatever will help me excel in the sport of physique presentation . . .

What this all means is, in order to train as a bodybuilding ATHLETE, I am obliged to incporporate MANY tactics beyond weights rooutines . . .

For example, to present well, a bodybuilder needs to be limber and flexible.  So, I include training sessions that are ENTIRELY STRETCHING.  Long, methodical, focused sessions — 30 to 45 minutes 4 to 7 times a week — where ALL I DO IS STRETCH MY MUSCLES.

I stretch like this because flexibility is a skill I need in my contests.

But there is a BONUS BENEFIT.  Muscles that are stretched properly can expand and contract more thoroughly.  This avails them to more atrophy — and thus “better” growth.  Now, I DO NOT stretch for the benefit of mass building.  But the stretching ENHANCES my mass building.

See what I mean?  I train FOR MY SPORT, and that sport causes my body to assume a shape.

What else . . . what else . . .

Ah yes — Stability.  To present well, you need stability and balance — control.  One of the ways I tyrain stability is to incorporate Pilates.  I will go 2 to 6 weeks of reformer Pilates, 1 or 2 times per week.  Meanwhile, year-round I willdo core-centric floor Pilates work INSTEAD of traditional “abs training”.

Now, I am doing this work FOR STABILITY — I am doing this for my CONTEST.  But there is an added benefit of a tight abdominal structure.  Likewise, my core stability allows me TO SQUAT MORE SAFELY, AND HEAVIER, thus producing BIGGER LEGS.

That’s right — CORE STRENGTH IS CRUCIAL FOR MY LEG DEVELOPMENT.  STRONG CORE, BIG LEGS.  It is very simple.  BUT I DO THIS PILATES WORK FOR OVERALL STABILITY, not because I want a specific “look” to my legs.  

Likewise, this core stability enhances my bench, my overhead delt presses, my back training (DEADLIFTS!!!)

ALL KINDS OF GROWTH GETS ENCOURAGED THROUGH PILATES!  But by doing Pilatees I am NOT focusing on this growth benefit — I AM FOCUSED ON MY “GAME” — I am focused on what it takes to PRESENT well.

And presenting well in the sport of bodybuilding also relies on FOCUS and MIND-BODY-BREATHING SYNCHRONIZATION.  For this I incorporate Kripalu Yoga.  NOT power yoga.  NOT this westernized “do this like this”, and “here si the RIGHT WAY and WRONG way” style of yoga.  But yoga that is more meditative, and focused on the synergy of breathe and body.  It is challenging my body in a different way — to become more synchronous in it;s movement.  To be more focused, yet less “clenched”.  To “FEEL” my way through movement as opposed to “WILL” my way through movement.

ALL of these aspects help my posing.  So I do yoga for the posing.

YET, I also gain a better sense of balance.  And also a keener awareness of how to “mentally locate” a muscle or movement.  This helps TREMENDOUSLY with form in the gym.  My mind is sharper towards concentrating a specific muscle in a lift.  This lets me HIT THOSE SPECIFIC and SMALLER muscles with more accuracy.

Now although I get a HUGE gym benefit, and my smaller muscles benefit, I nonetheless DO NOT DO YOGA FOR THE MASS BUILDING AND SCULPTING BENEFIT.  SDure, I GET that benefit, but my focus was the skills of presentation.

I focus on my game.

And on and aon.

I develop ALL my training BASED ON MY SPORT.  Not based on causing a look.  

By focusing training on my sport — on bodybuilding — on the ATHLETIC aspects of physique presentation — I engage practices that transform my body.  I do not focus on the transformation, but on the SPORT.  I am an ATHLETE, not an IMAGE.  

And there are MANY OTHER practices I need in my sport.  All sorts of things BEYOND the weight room.  Some of these training practices you’d expect, yet others at first seem almost WEIRD for a bodybuilder to consider part of their “training” . . .  

Running stairs (I mean outdoors in an ACTUAL stadium — which for me locally means Boston University or Harvard).  

Frisbee (you’d be surprised what this does for grip control).  

Riding my bicycle on ERRANDS (not riding for long distances, but the stop-and-go aspect is VERY akin to the stop and go of a contest, and develops leg control and stability).  

Meditation (practicing letting go does wonders for the competitive focus).  

Posing (although it LOOKS like practice, it helps bring more muscle control awareness in the gym — and is a bit of a cardio workout).  

On and on.

My training is ALWAYS focused on game day.  There are LOTS of things I need to worry about.  But by letting the sport guide me, my body ironically “falls into shape.”

This is a VERY different mentality to the “image” building version of bodybuilding.  The mroe popular version of the sport asks us to focus efforts on specific muscles — emphasizing language like “targeting” and “isolating”.  And although this is CLEARLY the more popular way bodybuilding is pursued — as a means of building a specific image — it is very different from competitive bodybuilding.

Kind of like a football player in the gym.  They will be building their power and burst strength with the weights, and NOT be sconcerned DIRECTLY with the look or appearance.  BUT they might grow a thick back, or wide delts, or meaty arms . . . BUT BUILDING SPECIFIC MUSCLES IS NOT THE FOCUS OF THE TRAINING.

So too for me.

Now,  to be FRANK here, yes of COURSE I DO techincally emphasize specific bodyparts in my weight training.  I am NOT saying that I do not.  I will maybe switch out exercises for my arms, or adjust rest times with my back, or play around with jont stength on my chest . . . but nothing too too innovative or unique.  There are no miracle tactics I employ that you can’t already read about in a million places.  

In short, i have no specialized “routines.”  What makes my training look different is not what I do in the gym, but rather the OVERALL RESUME OF MY TRAINING.  What makes my body assume specific shapes is the result of EVERYTHING I DO IN COMBINATION, rather than about the weights.

That bears repeating and reiteration:

Developing and enhancing specific parts of my body CAN NOT BE DONE VIA WEIGHTS ALONE.  Specific enhancements of muscles relies on the WHOLE COMPLEX SYSTEM of veried training practices.  

And ALL these training practices are focused and derived from the needs I have in my SPORT OF BODYBULDING; needs I have in PRESENTING A PHYSIQUE.

Not needs I have for “how I want to look.”

And all this is said in terms of MY BODY.  ME.  Others might have found different.  This is just how I have progressed.  Lots of variety, and ALWAYS a training focus on the sport I play, not on the look I want.

Now, maybe I am doing this ALL WRONG.

Maybe I should develop specific, intensive routines; TACTICS for each specific body part.

But in truth, I have none.  No back training.  No foraerm blitz.  No upper pec onslaught.

No teardrop theory . . .

So, sorry iBswole.  And apologies to all you awesome folks who have asked me for specific bodybpart routines.  I got no magic.  My weight training looks like YOUR weight training.  The only thing that is different is the OVERALL CONTENT of my training.  It is focused on a sport, not on a look.

And THAT is another reason I so often encourage people to take up bodybuilding as a COMPETITIVE sport.  What you need to do to train for "the game" ends up developing aspects of your body for which you might have previously stagnated.  Being an athlete gets you more development than being an image.

As such, looks like the only specific routine I have is for my typing fingers . . .

And, of course, for my tireless jaw muscles.  Which THANKFULLY were just given a rest.

Want to be a leader in the sport of bodybuilding?  Here’s the secret.

My last post prior to this one was about the new guys (and gals — remember, I’m from Boston where both men AND women are called "you guys").  So I guess this one is about the old guys.  Well, not OLD, but the ones who are in the game.  

And also the ones who want to get into the game . . . which might be you . . .

This is about all you BIG dreamers.  All you guys (there it is again) who want to be the next BIG bodybuilding and physique AUTHORITY.  You just KNOW in your BONES you got what it takes to ROCK the #1 game . . . And now you think you’re ready (and willing).  You want to ascend to becoming the next #1, video-having, article-spouting, fan-base-building, benchmark-creating, hero-worshiped ultra authority.  You might even think you deserve such authority.  And, in fact, you might even be correct.

So how do I GET THERE?

Well, let’s face it: there are LOTS of those who claim authority in bodybuilding.  Authorities in physiology.  Authorities on diet.  Authorities on training.  Authorities on competing . . .

And the Authorities will ALL tell you — the way authorities ALWAYS do — that THEIR way is THE way to get the authority.  Any authority in  bodybuilding will claim that THEIR OWN method of practice, their education, and their experience is THE BEST way to go . . . otherwise, they wouldn’t even BE the authority.  

Right?

And if you were an authority in the sport, that would imply that you are ALSO a leader in the sport.

Right . . . ?  

Well, maybe not . . .

See, authority relies on being #1 in some way.  And there is only so many #1’s.  (In fact, pulling out my calculator here, there is only one #1 in each category, last I did the math.)  So there’s only a FINITE amount of authority.  Not everyone gets some.  If YOU have authority, the other guy doesn’t.

When it comes to authority, some will end up having too much, others just enough, and still others won’t be given quite enough.  There will be inevitable scarsity.  We will run out of authority before we make more to accomodate those who deserve or take it.  There’s only a limited amount of “authority” to go around.  Only so many “#1 bodybuilding So-And-So’s”  

To focus on becoming an authority, you also have to compete and compete and compete with those trying to get some of that limited amount.  SO MUCH energy is spent trying to get a name for yourself.  

Meanwhile, leadership is limitless. Leadership is infinite.  There is no scarcity.  LOTS to go around with leadership.  If you want to be a leader, you can just dig right in, and get more than your fair share.  No need to compete — only the desire to lead.

Authority requires you play THEIR game.  LOTS of learning and work involved.  

Leadership only requires an understanding of your own game, and how it relates to the games of those you lead.  You already HAVE all your learning there.

Leadership is intimate.  It is personal.  It is based on what you already know and do.  

Yet, authority remains distant, avoiding intimacy.  Authority is removed.  Authority is foreign to those it commands.

Leadership does not require approval, only agreement.  Authority does not require agreement, only approval.  

Authority tells.  Leaders teach.

Authority most defend itself, closing off.  Leadership must open itself, defending others.

Authorities are focused on their own power.  Leaders are focused on the power of others.

Authority is claimed by placing demand.  Leadership is claimed by offering example.

Authorities defend their thoughts.  Leaders explain their ideas.

Authority seeks to limit the boundaries of other’s power.  Leadership requires the expansion of other’s power.

Authority has built into it a sense of scarcity.  Yet Leadership has built into it a sense of abundance.

More is found for you if you focus on being a great leader, than if you focus on being a #1 authority.  

The two need not be seperate.  Authorities can be great leaders.  And many great leaders end up having much authority.  

The balance between the two — and how that balance is achieved — is the JOB of every bodybuilder or physique competitor shooting for the top.  

You WANT the authority of the #1 slot.  But are you also a LEADER?

If you want MORE from your work, look into how your example, your ideas, and your strengths might lead others.  Continue to lead, and you will get more and more.  Authority might come — or it might not.

But you will never be without abundance.  And then you guys (there it is AGAIN!) will ALWAYS be in the game . . .

Ready is willing.  Willing is ready.  They are one and the same.

I always remind young (and young-at-heart) athletes of this fact.  To be READY to compete in bodybuilding actually merely means you have becoime WILLING to do the work necessary to prepare and enter a contest.  It does NOT mean anything other than a decisive commitment you make to yourself.  That is, ironically, the ONLY qualification to begin the process.  

(Yes — that’s me coaching like a goon . . . )

But WHY should you even BE willing?  Why BOTHER competing?  Why bother making that decisve commitment and “becoming willing”?

Well, let’s look at it another way . . . (buckle up — here comes one of XN’s analogies . . .)

Let’s say you went to a basketball court four to six times a week.  Let’s just say for 2 or 3 hours a day you were dribbling up and down the court, practicing lay-ups and free throws and dunking, driliing yourself on footwork and sp[eed burst . . . basically PRACTICING all the skills of basketball playing.  And let’s just say you LOVED it — you had a BLAST with all this practice.  So much fun you had been doing it for a year; two years; four, five, seven years.  Years and years of practice . . .

Then one day a bunch of guys come to the court and say: “Hey we were gonna play a few games.  You want to join us?”

And you look at them, somehow SURPRISED they would ask LITTLE OLD YOU.  And you say:

“Naw, that’s okay.  I am NOT READY TO PLAY BASKETBALL.  I just need to keep PRACTICING.”

Well, for starters they would see you as CRAZY.  What had you been DOING all those years if it was NOT playing basketball???  HOW MANY YEARS ARE YOU PLANNING ON PRACTICING BEFORE YOU ARE WILLING TO PLAY THE GAME?

GET THE HELL IN THERE AND TEST YOUR SKILLS!!!

Now SOME guys have a clever response.  They say: “Yeah, but I ENJOY What i am doing.  I GET something from it.  And if I am enjoying my life, and GETTING something from all this dribbling and shooting — then WHY SHOULD I CARE TO PLAY A GAME OF BASKETBALL?”

Well, on the ONE hand, live and let live comes into play.  So, of course, do what you want, there, big guy . . .

BUT, if you give a little thought, PLAYING the game might INCREASE your return — and EXPAND your joy.  When you practice, you are in a controlled setting.  There is less pressure so there is more room for a casual pace.  yet within the game you are thrust into a realm of unpredictability.  In practice, you KNOW what’s next, but in a game you DON’T know whatr’s coming.  THIS builds a degree of skill that can’t be duplicated through mere practice.  While in practice, you know AHEAD OF TIME what skills you will need.  In a game situation, your decision making skills are challenged . . . and you IMPROVE yourself exponentially . . .

So let’s bring this back around to bodybuilding.

Take a look at your training history.  COMPARE YOURSELF NOW TO WHEN YOU FIRST BEGAN BODYBUILDING.

I am sure right now you are bigger, leaner, and stronger than when you started.  

I am sure your workouts are more structured than when you started.

I am sure your dietary plans have improved from where you started.

I am sure you are more disciplined, determined and focused than when you started.

Overall — YOU HAVE MADE INCREDIBLE IMPROVEMENTS.  Sure, you can beat yourself down by looking up to the top of the mountain you want to climb and saying “I am SO far from the ULTIMATE goal.”  But it is WISE to occasionally turn around and look DOWN the mountain and see how far up you have climbed.

Likewise, a way to CONTINUE your climb towards your ultimate dreams is to GET IN THE GAME.  To begin competing will sharpen qualities in you that will help you climb FASTER AND BETTER.

But MOST of you are saying: “Yeah, I agree, and that’s GREAT and all — sure I want to “get in the game” and “look down the mountain” — but THOSE GUYS WILL TEAR ME UP! I DON’T LOOK LIKE THEM!!!”

Sigh.

Look, what I am HERE talking about is AMATEUR, NOVICE, NATURAL, SMALL-TIME, LOCAL contests.  I am NOT talking IFBB Olympia, or Natural Worlds, or ANYTHING LIKE THAT.  

EVERYONE HAS TO START SOMEWHERE.  So I am here talking abotu STARTING SMALL.

I am here ONLY talking about STARTING TO COMPETE, not about WIN WIN WIN.  Thsi is about gaining experience — the experience you would need if you WANTED to eventually win.  But even if you are like me and don’t ultimately CARE about winning (I’ll blog on THAT topic another time), and you want to merely build great tools to buld a great physique, then STARTING TO COMPETE IS A SURE-FIRE WAY TO IMPROVE!!!

So QUIT LOOKING AT THE WINNERS!  Quit looking at the TOP guys onlione, and see, instead, if you can find pictures of, well, the guys who did not place top five.  Look at the LOW END of a competitive class.  BEFORE saying you do not fit in, see if you are potentially equal — or better — than the guys on the LOW END of the field.

To STARTY competing is VERY DIFFERENT than to START WINNING.  If you want to WIN a game, you need to know the BEST WAY TO PLAY.

Well, if you are busy prwacticing all the time, and never play, THEN HOW THE HECK ARE YOU GONNA KNOW HOW TO WIN.

That point bears repeating: HOW CAN YOU KNOW HOW TO WIN A GAME THAT YOU STUBORNLY REFUSE TO PLAY?

Can’t learn to win from the sidelines.  No matter how much “practice” you put in, the fact of the matter is that winning games is learned through PLAYING games.

Even if that game is a judged contest, like bodybuilding.

But as I mentioned earlier, being WILLING, and tehre fore, READY to compete has NOTHING to do with winning.  It has everything to do with a decisive change in your outlook on things.  You have to know WHY you should be willing in order to get that willingness in place.  You need answers to the question: why, if I am ALREADY having a blast with my bodybuilding, then bother to “jump in the game” of competitive bodybuilding — even as a low-level, beginning amateur?  Why compete?

A-hem . . .

• Competing will bring awareness to specific parts of the system that need DIRECT improvement.

• Competing “compresses” your timeline, making you take more focus to dot he work.

• Competing helps you asses yourself as compared to other players in your field, who hold similar dreams as yourself.  This helps you observe how OTHER PEOPLE did things right — and what to see what other people did WRONG in order that you might AVOID those things yourself.

• Competing brings a sense of community to an otherwise private endeavor.  Community can help us motivate when we’re losing steam, and likewise can pull us back when we’re in too close and obsessed.  Communtiy is a HUGE tool for climbing that mountain.

• Competing  creates a “check point” in your process.  It gives you a place to stop, evaluate your “current best” WITHOUT DISTRACTION so you know where you are at.

• Competing helps you set new, achievable short-term goals.  Because you can break up your work into smaller time periods — the time-spans between contests — you can set more SPECIFIC goals, and be more focused in achieving them one by one, instead of trying to achieve everything at onec.

• COMPETING TEACHES PATIENCE.

• Competing brings an element of fun to your game.  (Or more fun, if you’re already having ablast.)

There are tons of OTHER reasons as well.  But these are some main themes.  

Yet even still, I am betting a lot of you are still hung up on the whole “I am not ready” thing.  You talk about “readiness” as if it were some specific point in the future . . . Meanwhile, you look like you just stepped out of a supplement ad; all abs and mountainous pecs and broad shoulders . . .

And I bet you are very similar.  Here you are ASSUMING you are not ready to be a competitive athlete, and meanwhile you are probably — again from a coach’s perspective — maybe 3 to 6 months from “ready” to enter a BEGINNER, AMATEUR contest.

But you want to be stubborn and DOUBT you are ready to begin the process. You are CONVINCED.  Well, let me throw another curve ball at you . .

IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE IT, THEN HOW CAN YOU BE CERTAIN YOU DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO GET IN THE GAME?!  I am not talking about having what it takes to always WIN the game, but just talking about what it will take to PLAY THE GAME WELL?  How can you be SO sure you don’t have it when you have NEVER TRIED YOUR SKILLS?

Still stuck in practice . . . never getting in the game . . .

Not ready simply means you’re not willing to believe your ready.

But then I get the laundry list of GRAND EXCUSES . . .

“XN, I need to put on like 10, 15, 20 pounds.”
And how do you know?  Bodybuilding is about CONTROLLING A SHAPE, not EXPANDING A SIZE.  Once you learned the skills of the sport, you may find that you only need 5 pounds.  Or you may find you need 30, but that you can get by with 3 pounds a year for ten years and cointinually place well as an athlete.  In other words, this sport is NEVER assesed through poundages.  Some amount of magical weight you want to gain has NOTHING to do with readiness.

“XN, my legs are like twigs!  I can’t go up there like THIS.”
Really?  Do you know how to POSE yet?  I mean, OF COURSE we want to grow our legs (I am a little TOO zealous about it, maybe, but even I love my big wheels).  But the game of bodybuilding is played through PRESENTATION, not played through girth comparison.  OFTEN the smaller legged guy will beat the bigger legged guy because fo good posing and solid conditioning.  Big legs are NOT what makes a great bodybuilder.  Besides — start now to find out REALISTICALLY how deficit your legs may or may NOT actually be . . .

“XN, I am WAY too fat to compete.”
Umm, that is what diets were designed for.  When I suggest starting to compete, I do NOT mean TOMORROW.  I mean set up a plan.  Some guys are close to conditioned, and can enter their first contest in 8 to 10 weeks.  Other guys might take 3 to 5 moths.  Bottom line, though, if you don’t pick the contest date, you will STAY fat.

“XN, I love pigging out and crappy eating too much.”

Nine times out of ten, when a dude hits me with this it is NOT because he has some inordinate love of junk food.  It is usually a cover story for not KNOWING HOW TO MANAGE EATING.  I am not just talking about diet, but a lack of basic food management skills.  (There is another blog in this topic.)  If you KNEW how to eat in a way in which you were SATISFIED, maybe you would presume it’s that you have a dysfunctional love of junk food . . . in other words, let’s not play junior psychologists.  Let’s just figure out a plan for eating that works in your life — and which you ACTUALLY ENJOY for more than just the benefits.  That might take 4 or 5 months, but it is ALWAYS doable.

“XN, my life is WAY to busy to prep for a copntest.”
Oh, so you have done this before, then?  No?  THEN HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE TOO BUSY?  Time management is not about the art of “getting rid of things.”  Time management is about the art of, well, MANAGING THINGS.  Most often, people find that it takes merely 2 to 4 weeks of a little added stress to incorporate and reorganize their lives to accomodate contest prep.  After that, it comes pretty easily, apart from the occasional random snag.  It is VERY RARE that I meet someone who has actually made such a chaotic mess of their life as to be unable to accomodate something that will make them happy.  If you think you have made such a mess of time that you have no room for somethign that will make you happy, well, there might be a bigger problem afoot . . .

“XN, I know how to basically train, and understand the diet stuff (although i need to improve it), and although I am WILLING to begin, I actually have NO IDEA where to begin that process.”
Hi, I’m XN.  A bodybuilding coach.

I will actually blog on a list of “things to look at” to get started later.  Thsi blog is just for you unwilling types.  You already-willing types — I haven’t forgotten ya!

The point of THIS blog (I actually have a POINT?  Wow.) is simple: being ready to compete is NOT some god given right, some moment of heavenly-bestowed perfection that occurs when you wake up one morning many years from now.  There are no numbers you need which will “qualify” you as ready.  There is no shape you need to mimic to be ready.  

All you need is the willingness to GET IN THE DAMN GAME.

So drop all this “I need to first do such-and-such” nonsense.  That’s just you stalling.  YOU ARE READY IF YOU ARE WILLING.

Get the willingness to begin, and you are off and running.

Or you can just go back to practicing.  Never playing.

I have never been the type to get all impressed with celebrities.  I am not taken to bursts of "fandom" when a big name enters the room.  When a famous so-and-so appears on the scene I never understood why people get all goo-goo-ga-ga, tongue-tied, two-left-feet, and other hyphenated-nervous-behaviors.  It’s just not me.  

I guess it’s because I don’t pick my heroes from the "pre-fabricated herd."  I don’t automatically look for the most VISIBLE example of accomplishment as my personal role model for success.  Visibility can mean great success, sure.  But more often than not it just means that the visible person is made into a celebrity merely because they are, well, the LOUDEST about their accomplishments.  Not always that they are the best — nor worth "following" in their footsteps.

So I don’t get the mooney-faced awe i see among my fellow bodybuilders when it comes to big names.  Many of these big names are rightfully accredited.  But until I know a person personally, I find it a little porecarious to just PRESUME they are "hero worthy."

For example, I have had the fortune to play host to several bodybuilding IFBB pros over the years.  Nothing glamorous — usually just helping coordinate an event or entertaining during "the gaps" between celebrity obligations.  Some i get along with, others I find atrocious.  After one such afternoon, I must have had a look of utter disgust on my face.  Several people were confused.  

"That dude just spent the afternoon with Mr. Big Huge Supersrtar Body builder Dude!  He should be ECSTATIC."

In response, a close friend of mine quipped:

"Yeah, that’s probably ture for most of us.  But XN doesn’t have much patience for the royalty."  

Which is true.  Human beings are human beings in my eyes.  I do not assess a person’s quality based on their popular accomplishments.  I certainly don’t value a person based on their popular reputations.  No, for me I take each person as they come.  When I meet any sort of celebrity, I keep in mind that there is a person BEYOND the reputation . . . and THAT is the person whom I am curious to meet.  Not the "public face".  Heck — I can READ about the public face.

So then, who are my heroes in bodybuilding?  Who do I look to for my example of what a consumate "bodybuilding athlete" is all about?  

Good question.

I mean, I myeslf have accomplished a few things here and there (of course I have a LOT more to go).  So it’s a pretty fair assumption that i have had SOME role models over the years, right?  

Well, it ain’t the superstars.  I can’t think of too many big names who I would model my bodybuilding journey after.  

Now, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate SOME big names for SOME things.  Sure I do.  For example, I always got a kick out of how Mike Matarrazzo has a sense of humor about his image — he doesn’t take his image TOO seriously.  This one aspect I respect, and give him credit for.  Likewise, I always appreciated the grinning, goofy, self-effacing humility of Franco Columbo.  it was refreshing to see a humble man who has accomplished similar goals as his much more self-masturbatory peers.  I can even give a nod to Frank McGrath — NOT for his bodybuilding (I know NOTHING about who he REALLY is as a person).  But I do appreciate how he is dedicated to the MYTHOLOGY of our sport, literally putting hsi own personality on a second tier in the media, and instead portraying a idealized "character" of bodybuilding’s mythology.  Although much of his public work has it’s roots in consumerist, mass-marketing slant (which I typically find ugly), I can appreciate his willingness to portray an ideal over his need to self-promote.

But these are just ELEMENTS.  I am not taken to swooning and fawining over these — or other — bodybuilding personalities, even if i can find appreciation in elements of their work.

So, then, who is left for heroes?

Who can I say I look to in modeling my OWN work?

Well, here is a PARTIAL list of SOME of those bodybuilders who have made "XN’S PERSONAL PANTHEON".

• JOHN McCARTHY

• DAROLD HUBBARD

• NATE FILIPIAK

• JAMIE BARRETT

• MIKE DiSANO

Good luck in FINDING anything about these guys.

Yes, they are down here.  With us.  In the trenches.  But each of these men has shown me example of what bodybuilding greatness can be about.  I would NOT say I would model MY LIFE after any of them.  We’re ALL flawed, and i wouldn’t swap my flaws for anyone else’s.  But as far as their “take” on the sport, what i have watched it “do” in their lives, how they “represent” the sport, and their personal PASSION, well, they all blow me away.

There are others.  (I am sure I will get to them in future blogs).  But these are a few that start the list.  (I KNOW I will get some half-joking emails from buddies and contemporaries who feel snubbed that they’re not on the list.  DON’T WORRY GUYS!  I WILL GET AROUND TO YOU!)

These guys were (are) just “normal folks” who engaged with the sport in a BIG way.  TThe sport motivated great movement and pwoer in their personal lives — helping them overcome obstacles, motivating them to keep going, and even teaching them invaluable wisdom about their world.  

Bodybuilding changed thge very FIBER of their personalities, yet THEY NEVER GOT LOST IN THE SPORT.  This is, without question, of the key criteria for my personal pantheon of bodybuilding heroes.  A hero in bodybuilding (among MANY other things) is someone who can ALWAYS RELOCATE HIMSELF  and RECONNECT WITH THOSE WHOM HE LOVES at ANY POINT in their process — not merely “after the contest.”  Putting aside the normal personal errors people make in judgement (I know ALL of them to have occasionally had some pretty big “woops moments”), they all nonetheless always had the uncanny knack for keeping their life and their sport well integrated.  

That is probably another aspect of what makes someone heroic in my eyes: how we’ll they INTEGRATE the sport.  All these men put bodybuilding as a CLEAR SECOND in their list of priorities.  Yet, at the same time, they all manage to utilize bodybuilding to help maintain their #1 priorities.  In other words, without bodybuilding, they would not be as good, as passionate or even as attentive to that which they loved.  They can’t live on bodybuilding alone, but they can definitely not go as far without it.  This CAREFUL, METICULOUS balance — to stay DEEPLY INTIMATE without getting OVER-IMMERSED — is truly heroic.

And they all keep going.  Regardless of how they are buffeted, they all JUST KEEP GOING FORWARD.  They do not get daunted — they merely CHANGE.  And here is another remarkably heroic quality: their ability to ADAPT.  None of them gets hung up on finding “one best method.”  None of them is blind-sided by “competitive politics.”  “Not a one of them worries too profoundly on “the absolute science.”  Instead, as adversity appears THEY ADAPT; without suffering, without whining, and with FULL INTENTION.  They are all of them VERY DIFFERENT now than when they first came into the sport.  NONE of them have just repeated the same trick over and over.  What they do NOW in (and WITH) the sport is very different than when they set out.  And this amazing, almost casual ability to adapt and grow is HUGE in my eyes.

John McCarthy first taught me the importance of loyalty and that you need a team in the sport — but moreso, you need a FAMILY if you expect to excel.  And he was just a BIG, shredded freak.

Darold Hubbard showed an example of how bodybuilding should always and ONLY ever be a joy.  If EVER it is work, then you are in too close.  He also showed me that it’s okay to “play the star” from time to time, so long as you keep your dignity and do not confuse “beefcake” with “cheesecake.”

Nate Filipiak showed (and continues to show) how FUN IS VITAL FOR SUCCESS.  Bigness comes from goofing around in the gym.  Cuts come from camping it up in the kitchen.  Trophies come from horsing around on stage.  PLAY PLAY PLAY.  NEVER let it become work.  If it ain’t play, go home.

Jamie Barrett showed me that dreaming is perhaps the most important thing.  If you fail, make mistakes, and royally blow it on occasion, let the reason be big dreams, not big fears.  Believe your own way, even if it seems like a complete disaster in the eyes of those around you.  So long as you are led by your dreams, you will perservere your own blunders.

Mike DiSano shows me how to keep it my own game.  Bodybuilding is here FOR HIM.  It’s here FOR YOU, FOR ME, for EACH OF US.  It is OUR GAME — play NO ONE ELSE’S.  It moves at OUR PACE, not vice versa.  An easy, relaxed regard is what builds freakish proportion, and an acceptance — without prejudice — of our own flaws is what will make us excel.  To try to conquer flaws is pointless.  We MUST embrace them, and use them to build NEW SUCCESSES.  We must NEVER mark our success by how far we are from our flaws, but rather by how much we knew our flaws as we achived more, and how much we did not let our flaws slow us.

So, yes, my heroes are down here in the mud and muck with me.  They are not the shiney, glamorous icons spewed forth across glossy pages and countless web forums.  I DON’T KNOW THOSE GUYS!

Why would I admire and model myself after COMPLETE STRANGERS?  I can appreciate little aspects of their work — but that’s because I ONLY KNOW LITTLE ASPECTS OF THEIR WORK.  Nothing more.  I do not take strangers as my heroes.

The "big names" do not make the cut into my personal pantheon.

Celebrity doesn’t, by itself, impress me.

Like my buddy said about me: I have little patience with "the royalty."

"It’s not who wins, it’s who they remember."
                                      - XN

I always hear bodybuilders whining at contests.  These big, bad bruisers turn into crybaby Sallies because they hate being required to do a posing routine.

"Why do they even HAVE it?" they lament.  "It’s not judged — so why BOTHER?’

Sadly, these days even many of those bodybuilders who claim the title of "pro" could not describe to you just where the night routine actually came from.  Or how it emerged in the sport for that matter.  They are even less likely to offer substantial reason as to why it is now no longer essential or relevant to the judging.

Early in the contemporary sport (the contemporary period being from 1850 through the present, while the contemporary sport draws origins as early as the 1910’s and 20’s) the format was stiull developing.  Early on, the concept was to have the competitors present their physiques in a manner akin to what we see in gymnastics.  More descriptively, each athlete would be required to know the skills of physique presentation, and know the mandatory poses.  Likewise, each athlete would have to independently present their physique, similarly to how divers, ice skaters or gymnasts present their sklills today — without cues.  The overlap of the two processes no doubt stems from the heritage gymnastics & acrobatics shared with bodybuilding in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s, made popular along Venice Beach.  (Check out my other blog on this topic: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/The_Real_XN/2007/03/21/but-you-cant-look-cool-in-gymnast-leggings-o
n-the-beach/ )

At any rate, in addition to a line up, athletes had to not only present their physique, but also present their ability to DISPLAY their physique. So, in addition to a group line up, each competitor was responsible for coming out individually and presenting the mandatory poses.

Like gymnastics, this "individual routine" originally consisted of the mandatories presented in any order the athlete chose, and could also incorporate additional poses as the bodybuilder saw fit. The (now nearly lost) skill of the transition was also assessed in this routine.

Eventually, this was seen as the far more entertaining portion of the contest. Soon, music was played in the background to fill up the blank silences. The more savvy bodybuilders would syncronize their posing to the music. Soon, the athletes would also begin requesting music to which they had pre-choreographed their mandatories. And — voila! — the routine was born.

Soon, the routines were presented seperate from the pre-judging. Yet, the routines were STILL COMPONENT TO THE FINAL SCORE. (Hence why the line-up portion got the nickname "PRE-JUDGING" — a nickname that still sticks around today, even though thwere is no "other" judging. originally the routine was considered the that secondary aspect, but the term "pre-judging" has not yet been dropped.)

Remember, authentic bodybuilding is NOT about the singular aspect of physique quality, but rather about how a physique’s quality is presented across basic criteria. Thus, the skill and physique awareness requires to properly execute the routine became an essential skill for the athletes, demanding more flexibility, agility and control of the musculature than is required by mere static execution of mandatory poses.

Yet slowly, since the routines became more and more seen as a money-maker and less as an uathentic part of the sport, the very important skills these routines embodied were slowly forgotten, and reserved as merely "playful tricks." One by one contests begane weighing their score less and less, eventually dropping the score all togather.

Ironically, this has caused a glut of lousy presentation in the sport today. As the emphasis has slolwy swung around to merely the physique’s conditioning, the SPORT of physique PRESENTATION has been sorely reduced to a bland, boring and endeavor that requires more memorization than physical skill.

When I coach athletes, I remind them of this history, and also remind them of one simple philosphy of mine:

"BODYBUILDING CHAMPIONSHIP IS NOT ABOUT WHO WINS, IT’S ABOUT WHO THEY REMEMBER."

If you think of ANY sport, so often the hero’s are not necessarily the #1 guys. Instead, the heroes in sport are often those who best exemplify the game. And bodybuilding is no different.

Countless times I have seen athletes approached with gratitude and thanks from a spectator for the fact that the athlete chose to present in a way that made sense to the spectator. I have even seen people enter the sport merely based on how inspried they had been by an athlete’s presentation skills.

Just because the routine is currently NOT the emphasis, PLEASE do not neglect it’s importance to your program.

Although the WINNER these days is made or broken by the pre-judging, the heroes are seen and found via their skills in presentation.

Do not take your routine flippantly.

Be a stand out, regardless of placing.

Show them that you know the SPORT, not just the sport PREP!

Recenetly, I wasted a LOT of work time responding to a post in the forums.  I did so much work on it, that I thought I would repost it here.  (Might as well get double the bang for my buck, right?)

It was originally in response to a post by a guy who’s handle is "/\/\icheal".  

He wrote:

"As you may have seen, ancient greeks (at least their statues) had thick waists AND 6 pack abs. How is that possible? If they had 6 packs, that means they had low bodyfat. And I thought the lower body fat you have, the smaller your waist becomes. So is there any other way to make your waist smaller besides losing fat?"

Now anyone who has followed my blog (god bless you if you have — and here’s hoping you find therapy now!), you know that this sort of topic is WAY up my alley.

I will most likely write more on diofferent aspects of this stuff in the future.  But for now, here is what I decided to extrapolate upon.  It was a LONG forum post – hence it’s graduation into a Big Is Inside blog post.

In short: interesting topic.

Now, first off, /\/\icheal, ignore the folks who dissed it.  Yes, at first it seems silly, but in fact there is a lot of cool content when you look at this topic.

A lot of people [in the forum] touched on responses already, so forgive me if I repeat a few things already mentioned in other posts.  

The first thing I have to say is how frustrating it is that so many people found this post frivolous.  It’s evidence of how today’s bodybuilders are so very disconnected with what brought them here.  

It is amazing to me how many people say they are avid fans or followers of bodybuilding, yet know so little of what makes up this sport.  Everyone is so focused on the science of bodybuilding that people forget that a solid half of the sport is based in the humanities.  People know so little of the humanities and so much of the sciences, that they are walking around half-informed, yet often claiming they have a solid grasp on thsi sport.  

Quite frankly, it would be like saying knowing how to build a house makes you an architect, or that the simple ability to measure out a football field makes you ready for the gridiron.  Bodybuilding is a truly rounded pursuit – with one part based in the sciences and one part in the humanities.  And a question which hearkens back 2,500 years is just as valid as the latest HST training split.

All to say that your question, /\/\icheal, is VERY relevant indeed, and not hardly frivolous.

You nailed it on the head when you looked at the statues and asked your self a question about waist size.  The aesthetics we still use today are, indeed, very much related to those ancient proportions – more directly than most guys want to think.  Whenever I ask a dude how old he thinks this sport is, I get answers like 30 years, 50 years, 100 years, and sometimes a clever dude might say 150 years.  In reality, there is CLEAR artifactual evidence to prove that bodybuilding was very much alive and kicking even way back then.

Our sport is thousands of years old.

As such, many concepts about the male and female physiques take cues from proportions realized in ancient times.  Yet, many dudes don’t realize this; it’s as if the contemporary bodybuilding aesthetic was something brand new in history.  As if it was thought up in the past 50 years or so.

Everyone knows of the Olympic Games in ancient times.  Yet most people do not realize that, among the games, was often held a final contest.  All the winners from the various sports were lined up, and posed, and judged, and that athlete who had the most superior physique was announced the OVERALL WINNER of many games.  It was not enough that you just mastered your sport.  You had to also have mastered how that sport affects your body.  The winners in ancient times were the bodybuilders.  Indeed, our sport could even be considered, in some respects, the ULTIMATE contest of those games.

My how far we have let ourselves tumble.

And these atheltes were often where the statues took their cues.  People would look towards the MOST heroic of physiques for reference.  Indeed, there were the typical exaggerations.  But in fact, these statues were generally rather accurate to the "best physiques" of the day.

But the principal then was you had to do more than just LOOK like a great athlete.  It was not enough to merely be diesel and shredded.  You had to be WORTHY of physique to be considered great.  Notice how today is so much different.  Today anybody who wants to LOOK the part can BE the part.  One need not have any true deeper calling, only the greedy, burning desire to look jacked and lean.  Not saying that is unto itself bad, but just a very strange side-turn the sport hgas made.  Thousands of years of succesful pursuit and today we have a bunch of imposters.  

These statues tell us that the only "new" thing about bodybuilding is the degree to which it can be "faked."  You need not even BE of an athletic nature to be considered a bodybuilder.  For the past 50 to 70 years, bodybuilding has become — for the first time in it’s austere history — PRIMARILY a cosmetic pursuit, as opposed to secondarily.

And don’t these to which you point statues just remind us of this idea.

But often people try to negate that which they have not integrated.  Because some guys don’t KNOW their bodybuilding inside and out, they want to negate the parts to which they are naive or ignorant.  And laugh at the question.

Look, even as far back as 5,000 years old there were concepts of the "overmuscled physique".  The Egyptians, ever concerned that royalty exceeded the common man, had statues that over time expressed progressively more "jacked physiques".

In other words, the pursuit of the over-muscled, lean and proportioned physique is a phenomena of Western Culture, not just of the contemporary IFBB boys.  Even thousands of years ago they had ideals that were, well, disproportionately huge.

However, we must keep in mind that although the dream of the diesel physique was thousands of years old, influencing us to this day, we have in recent decades a new influence: steroids.

Ancillary bodybuilding practices have created shapes and concepts of the physique that were never predicted in these ancient histories.  Steroids have created a look that in some ways expands the imagination, but in other ways marrs our perception.  Good or bad, it has undoubtedly altered the percepetion of the contemporary viewer.

So, those thick hips you were talking about?  Well, that is acxtually a coincidence rather than a norm.  The Greeks – as well as the Romans – were just like us today.  As I’ve researched it (and by no means am i claiming that I am here the last word) it seems that the Greeks heralded THREE types of ideal male form.  For lack of accurate terms, I will here label them “the Youth”, “the Warrior Athlete”, and “the Herculean Athlete”

I can describe each by comparisons today, for these three ideals still sit with us in our contemporary perceptions:

As far as the Youth ideal, here is where you think of the small waist, and the lean, tone muscles.  Imagin the Abercrombie ideal, or Hollister.  it is the young, hip, tight and toned yet not too shredded ideal.  MANY MANY Greek statues concerned themselves with this male aesthetic, praising the tiny waist and the lean physique.

Next, you have the Warrior Athlete.  Here, you can think of the physiques you see in Men’s Health.  Think of the Brad Pitt or Micheal Jordan ideal, or perhaps the most recent rendition of Hollywood’s Superman.  Better yet, look at the cast of the film 300.  This aesthetic was concerned with the leanness and the visibility of muscle.  Yes, it prized mass, but here was more impressed with WATCHING the musculature.  SOME of these depictions had thin waists, some more chunky.  Yet ALL had admirably visible muscularture — depicting a more mature version of the male aesthetic.

Lastly, you have the Herculean physiques. These statues most often had the chunky waistline that you mentioned.  Here, the Greeks took cues from the most diesel men around.  This form seemed to represent the stabilized and solid adult male aesthetic — accomplished and powerful.  As it was about exaggerated physique, the waistline was likewise shown as powerful, as would have happeened among the most muscular men of the day.  The exercise and military regimes of these people were based profoundly on power and physique stability.  This emphasis is absolutely what builds the midsection’s power.  But the counterpart to this body in today’s reflection is the bodybuilder aesthetic. Now not only shape and visibility, but also DENSITY was key.  The eleganmt lines of the Youth aesthetic were gone, and the sleek sophistication of the Warrior Athlete were likely advanced to create physiques that were, in a word, shockingly developed.

All these shapes are captured in Greek art and statutuary.  Remember, the Judeo-Christians were NOT the originators of "god in man’s image." The Greeks presumed that our own beauty and aesthetic descended DIRECTLY from that of their gods.  Therefore, how we looked at our best was, in their minds, more or less how the Gods looked all the time. This is what we see in those statues.

So, your looking to the Greek ideal aesthetics for information is very accurate. Yet do more research before drawing conclusions.  Not every male aesthetic was thick waisted.  Just as with today, there were  a variety of ways to build a body, and a variety of ways to represent that body.

But at the very least, your question shows a savvy towards the sport that many athletes have either neglected or ignored.  

In short: Smart topic.

I am turning my back on "natural bodybuilding."  Once and for all.

Yes, it is official.  I will no longer ever be a "natural bodybuilder."

Now, before you dealer-boys get all amped up to make another sale, let me also make another press-release style steatement:

I am likewise turning my back on steroid enhanced bodybuilding.  

That too is official.

[Let’s now pause to let the meatheads do the math.]

"Huh?"

How can I NEITHER be natural NOR be going on the sauce?  How is this possible?

Let me back up a little.  I have recently gone to coach at a few contests up here in the northeast.  The leagues were the OCB, the MuscleMania and the BLNPA.  

Now, what i saw was, as usual, some astounding physiques.  And these guys all used the term "natural" to describe what they were doing.

Maybe they all were.  Maybe some weren’t.  The only thing I know for certain is that they all passed whatever screening was being doled out by each individual league.  I could write essays and rants on flaws in the screening processes of BOTH urinalysis AND polygraph screening.  But I won’t.  Thank god.  How much MORE boring would this blog THEN be, right?

Meanwhile, to my regular readers (what is it – up to 3.7 of you now?) I will most certainly one day blog on some ideas for the solution to the screening process . . . but that is certainly for another time.

But now, back to what I saw (and always see) at the contests:

Instead, what I noticed was how the competitors reacted . . . in the pumproom, at the backdoor, in corners and nooks and back rows . . . there was a LOT of suspicion.

A LOT.

Anyone who has engaged with the natural sport knows that at ervery natural contest mini ethical debates pop up on the sidelines.  All day folks are muttering about who "has got to be on this" or who "has totally used that."  The athletes get caught up in the skepticism, and go at the issue of "natural versus steroids" like it was the national debate on the U.S. entry into Darfur.  

I ultimately love these conversations happening in the aisles and back walls of the contests.  I think discussion and debate is HUGELY healthy.  Especially among competitors.  But there is another element to it all . . .

The athletes are derisive, suspicious and paranoid.  Everyone is leery of one another.  The folks deemed "suspect" are TOO suspicious to embrace, and yet the folks doing the "suspecting" are too righteous to console.  It becomes a simmering hate-fest.

And in the process, a LOT of athletes get turned off.

A LOT.

And it’s ugly.

Now, look, I am personally not against steroids.  I am against stupidity.  That has ALWAYS been my stance: I am NOT anti-steroid, I am anti-stupidity.  

And for the sake of this position I personally define stupidity "under-thinking."  Or at least as the refusal to use one’s full capacity of thought and reason.  Stupidity – as I see it - is simply  the refusal, denial or unwillingness to incorporate the widest possible range of thought, idea and fact into the production of a conclusion – even if the stuff you include is unpleasant to look at.

In this respect, there are a LOT (perhaps the majority?) of guys who use gear whom I think just aren’t looking deeply enough at things.  My opinion.  But to not look DEEPLY at an issue is, in a word, stupid.  Hey, if they are intelligent to be able to manage complex chemical administrations, they are certainly smart enough to weather a little bit psychological insight . . . to not "go there" ALL THE WAY is not only a half-ass approach, it’s acting a little more stupid than they actually are.

But that is not to say that those who do NOT use the juice are any smarter.  In the case of the so-called "naturals", they are typically ethical morons.  If the guys on steroids have muddied the ethical waters with clever rationalizations, well, the naturals have certainly screwed up the bigger issue by WAY too much moralizing.

Does morality come into play with the choice to use or not use?  In my opinion, most certainly.  However, is it ETHICALLY SMART to attempt to uphold a morality by telling someone whose morals are different than your own that they are WRONG?  I think not.  How stupid of naturals to morally ostracize those who hop on the gear.  To push them out and cast them aside not only strengthens the conviction to use more, but also makes naturals look, well, in a word: stupid.

So, I am anti-stupidity in ALL cases.  The guys on the juice are very often not thinking things through on ALL levels.  And the guys NOT on the juice are very often thinking only with the intent to be in the right.

And I want nothing to do with either of them.

So, I use different terms.

I am not a "natural athlete."  I am an "INTEGRAL" athlete.

And guys who use steroids (or andro, or folks with cosmetic implants for that matter), I term as "ANCILLARY" athletes.

Integral and Ancillary.

Boy that sounds cold.  Those terms seem stoic, sterile and without much heart or passion, don’t they?

Yes.  And I am PROUD OF IT.

These terms HAVE NO MORALITY SLANT ATTACHED TO THEM.  You can not say one is "right" and one is "wrong."  You can not claim one is "better" and one is "worse" as far as the human experience goes.

THESE WORDS PRODUCE NO ENEMIES.

In other words, these words unite us.  Or at least ATTEMPT to unite us.

These words only describe our PROCESSES.  They do not attempt to describe our MORALITY or ETHICAL NATURE.

My definition of an "integral" approach to bodybuilding is simple: anything that is INTEGRAL to my most common human abilities.  In other words, any food I can ingest, any exercise I could conduct, and any state of being I could induce via MY OWN PERSONAL ABILITIES, and WITHOUT THE HELP OF AN OUTSIDE (ANCILLARY) PARTY.

As an example, imagine I was marooned on the perfect "island of survival."  (Now, I know a LOT of you really are hoping I WOULD be marooned, but this is ONLY an example.)  Now this imaginary island has on it EVERY possible food source – fruits, vegetables, cattle, fowl, fish, grain – all growing all over it.  It’s a miracle island.  And I am all alone on it.  No gym, no people, just me, and EVERY POSSIBLE RAW FOOD I CAN IMAGINE.  

Now here I am, basking on the beach, waiting to be rescued, and realize that it might be a LONG TIME.  And, in my boredom, i decide to start bodybuilding.

The question is this:

COULD I BUILD A BODYBUILDER PHYSIQUE ALL BY MYSELF ON THIS ISLAND?  Given that I have all the food available to me, and all the time (hey - I’m MAROONED, after all), COULD I BUILD MUSCLE?

Anyone with half a wit would know that, yes indeed, I could grow muscle.  I could lift stones, do cardio, and with all that food around, get high quality protein and carbs.  Heck, I would even be getting my creatine, glutamine, EFA’s, vitamins, etc., etc. . . . I could even ingest all the "basic supplements" that i would otherwise buy back in civilization.

In other words, i could bodybuild based on my INTEGRAL ABILITIES>

And THIS is what I call INTEGRAL bodybuilding.

Now, on this island I could NOT (obviously) manufacture steroids.  I could not inject insulin or growth hormone.  I could not insert implants (or at leeast not insert them and SURVIVE!).   I could not even ingest any andro’s.  

ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE ANCILLARY to my abilities.

INTEGRAL implies methods of bodybuilding that are within my human capacity (or at least those methods that DIRECTLY duplicate those abilities – like ingesting vitamin C versus eating an orange).

ANCILLARY implies any rocess for which I ABSOLUTELY NEED an outside source to accomplish.

No morals.  No anger. No suspicion.

Most importantly: NO STUPIDITY.

I wonder if we began removing the morality from the sport and began using these terms, what might happen.

Now, the "natural" bodybuilder need not lord over his status.  he is one among many, as opposed to the righteous implied by labelling other athletes as somehow "unnatura" human beings.  I wonder how the agenda of that now-called "natural" might be advanced if he were to not alienate those who use steroids?

Meanwhile, now the guy on steroids need not hide.  Ancillary can mean ANY NUMBER of ancillary actions – many of which are legal.  No longer would these guys have to describe themselves in shadowed terms.  Ancillary could mean implants, or use of "legal steroids."  Now they could CLAIM THEIR STATUS WITHOUT LEGAL OR SOCIAL CONSEQUENCE.  

And without as severe a social stigma, it might even mean they could be encouraged over time to be able to be less covert at contests.  Contests could allow "ancillary" or "integral only" or both.  By removing the peer stigma, there may be less need to cheat . . .

Now that is utopian and ideal, I know.  However, it is at least a remote possibility.

And WAY more of a possibility than the current terms we use: "natural", "non-natural", "enhanced", "juiced", etc.  These old terms are getting us NOWHERE.  It is these old terms that created such a sense of derisiveness at the recent shows I attended.  And will contiunue to do so until we as a sport smarten up.

To change people’s minds, first change your language.  It really is that simple.  

So, from now on, call me an "integral bodybuilder".

Please please PLEASE do not call me a "natural bodybuilder."

That would be just stupid.

Everyone has preferences.  Like, for example, some people love training arms, other people love training legs.

And if, for further example, I prefer my leg training day more than my arm training day (and with my janky arms that would be a dangerous preference), then then this preference might influence my OPINIONS about those workouts.  I might tell someone:

"My OPINION is that leg training is just WAY better than arm training."

They might reply:

"How do you know this?"  (And also maybe: "Shouldn’t you be focussing on thise damn janky arms?!")

And (if all of this were actually true) I might reply:

"Well this is my opinion because that is my PREFERENCE."

In simple terms, our opinions of things are influenced (among other factors) by our preferences.  I know, I know – kind of a "duh" point.  But just want to get that out of the way; influences are a source of opinion.

Now what if I wanted to "prove" my opinion?  What if I wanted to PERSUADE YOU to buy into my preference for legs over arms . . . ?

Well, I might spend some time telling you what’s so great about leg training.  Maybe about how powerful you can feel from squatting, or about some clever ways of hitting hamstrings, or tactics to make calves grow . . . I could go on and on about all the cool things about legs.

It might work.

Maybe — eventually — you might even buy into it.  Maybe I would persuade you that my opinion is, in fact sound.

Whether or not you AGREED with it, a well presented opinion is at least one that can be seen as valid.  At the very least, it is a defense of one’s preferences.  And you kind of can’t disagree with one’s preferences.

But now let’s say I went about it entirely differently.  Now let’s say I tried to express my opinion about leg day by confronting EVERY OThER WORKOUT.  

Like, instead of explaining why leg day is so great, I spent time explaining why back day is a bitch, or why chest is for pretty-boys, or shoulders are weakling muscles . . .

If I went about it THIS way I would have a MUCH harder time getting my point across.  I mean, I would no doubt be tromping on YOUR opinions.  And you would spend more time trying to defend YOUR OWN opinions that you would entirely miss my point.

Like, you might come at me defending how cool your arm workout felt.  And then we might get into a bickering match about arms.  (Imagine that: me defending NOT training my janky arms!)  Next thing you know things are getting ugly, people start taking things personal, we start verbally clubbing each other shamelessly, ego’s get bruised, arms get called names . . .

And in the meantime my original opinion that I was trying to explain – about how cool leg day is – got lost.  Instead, we had an argument about my janky arms . . .

This happens a LOT in bodybuilding discussions.  A LOT.  

Very often, in order to try to explain an opinion, folks will try to diminish opinions that may not match their own.

Not only is this a LAME tactic, and not only does it typically not "work" to express a useful, sound opinion, but also it is selfish.

It is just plain selfish to try to bolster my own opinion by dismissing or tearing apart everyone else’s.

The most sane, peaceful and compelling way to explain a position is to stick to your own experience.  Anything else is selfish . . .

I know.

I occasionally pull this bonehead move.

My regular readers (all three and a half of them) know that my tone is sometimes . . . well . . . a little, um, righteous?  Pompous?  Self-promoting?  Feel free to pick your own specific adjective – it sits somewhere in that neighborhood.

And I know I carry this little glitch . . . hey, call it the result of being youngest in a boisterous Italian household!  As a kid, if I didn’t come out swinging hard and fast, I might not GET any air time!

And I have certainly TRIED to curb this tendency.  Hopefully, sometimes succesfully.  (You guys can, again, judge THAT for yourself.)  But, on occasion, I fall back into that "snatch and grab" method of expressing myself.  

Like, for example, that post about Joe Klemziewski . . .

It’s pretty clear my opinion got lost in the rhetoric.  Some people caught it.  Some did not.  But either way, it was the fault of HOW I was expressing it.

Let’s face it: my tone was absolutely reptilian.  Cold-blooded, out for prey, without compassion.  Any worthwhile contrasting opinion I may have expressed got lost in the, well, in the K-bashing.  

I had WANTED to make a point about appropriate skepticism.  I figured I would bolster that point by illustrating how THE WAY WE SEE THINGS ISN’T ALWAYS AS THEY ARE – for good or for worse.  However, in that illustration I took a tactic that i have seen a HUNDRED MILLION TIMES in the bodybuilding world . . .

What a bonehead.  Thank GOD this is just a B-rate blog by a dude with a bunch of opinions.  

But I hate that I slipped into that mode.  I know, I know – no harm no foul and all that.  But what I would LIKE to strive for is to be an insightful force that incites critical thinking in other athletes.

Even (and perhaps especially) contrary or unpopular thinking.

In my OPINION (ding ding ding – buzz-word!) bodybuilding discussions need to be more centered on grounding our own positions, not dismantling contrary ones.  It’s ENTIRELY possible to uphold an opinion without resorting to reptilian, snatch-and-grab, ego-busting tactics.  (Unlike I shamelessly used in that K blog-entry.)

Likewise, it is also my OPINION that the responsibility to shift this mode of dialogue is a responsibility shared by ALL of us.  

Yeah, yeah, yeah – that goes for arrogant blog-writers like me, too.  

Which is why I wanted to cite the blunder here in my blog.  In the end I only undermined my own opinion.  I noticed how several people were not seeing the point I was trying to make.  They were seeing it as a PERSONAL attack rather than just a contrary opinion.  That was NOT originally what I had intended to describe.  But after looking closely I realized that this reaction was not necessarily due to poor interpretation on the part of readers . . . it was more due to selfish writing and poor expression.  

No doubt I will revisit the CORE opinions of the piece one day, and re-editorialize them again so that they can be seen as my own.  But when I do, it will be in a more compassionate fashion.  Having compassion for the world around us is not – or at least SHOULD not – be mutually exclusive to expressing a frank opinion.  Both should be able to co-exist.  It just takes a little more forethought.  They type of forethought that I would want to see form others.  And therefore, the type of forethought I should myself try harder to uphold . . .

I guess it’s important to level WITH people, but it’s no good if you simply LEVEL them!

So, for now, THAT original, low-class version I’ve chosen to yank down HARD.  It’s only fair to Joe Klemziewski.  In fact it’s only fair towards everyone I am trying to LEVEL with.  I mean, even if my opinions are useful – even if one or two might be profoundly useful – I am just not helping things or expressing them skillfully with THAT kind of brute-force editorial style.  In other words, yes, I admit: that blog editorial was written like i was some a righteous pinhead.  A righteous pinhead with janky arms, no less.  And EXACTLY the type of righteous-pinhead-with-janky-arms style I would like to see diminished in the future.

Hopefully, in time, more sensible dialogue can eventually arise out of this quagmire of opinion spewing which so chronically clogs up the bodybuilding dialogue.  Hopefully, more of us who choose to put ourselves out as pundits and educators can work out these kinks.  Mine is hardly the first time such unskillful tactics have been used, and no doubt won’t be the last . . .

How embarrassing that I totally undermined any possible usefulness of my opinion!  How embarrassing that I tried to LEVEL something instead of trying to level WITH someone!  How embarrassing indeed!

Why, it’s even more embarrassing than my janky arms!

I got a REALLY cool piece of feedback from a competitor whose handle is "BahamaMan".  I LOVED this one:

"Christian, Read some of your blogs. You’ve got to admit that they’re long-winded and preachy, but I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. As a "natty bb" with "getting Pro card" as a goal, I especially like your point about "going pro"."

(Bahamaman is specifically referring to the blog "The Pro Card and the Wendy’s Burger", http://blog.bodybuilding.com/The_Real_XN/2007/03/21/the-pro-card-and-the-wendys-burger/)

BahamahamahamaMan, that is AWESOME!  

And as far as "admitting" to it . . . well . . . you’re RIGHT!  I am often LONG LONG LONG winded.  And certainly my ferver (read: lack of proofreading) for the topics usually lends itself to me sounding preachy.  

READ: I TOTALLY AGREE!  

I’ll do my best to recover some of my writing school precision from here on out (read: actually PROOFREAD the darn things).  I try to call attention (read: warn people) to the fact that I can write that way.  But in the end, you’re dead-on right, and it’s worth watching

But with that said, I make no promises . . . lord knows I’ll lose myself in the prose again.  The same way I lose myself in the bodybuilding! (read: stubborn as a mule and persistant as a gnat!)

And furthermore you will all agree with me that this all results itself in . . .

Oh wait.  Skip it.

Short and sweet gang:

"DISSENTION IS NOT DISLOYALTY."

This goes for all of us.

To dissent from the mainstream, and offer alternative ideas, or to challenge perspectives, or just to throw humor out there – this is NOT being disloyal.

In a sane, democratic space, dissension from the norm is what helps create changes.  It is IMPORTANT to challenge authority in meaningful, respectful ways.  

Merely challenging authority is not a sign of disloyalty.  In fact, isn’t it the opposite?  Isn’t disloyalty about working AGAINST the authority in insidious ways?  Trying to undermine?  Isn’t staging a challenge in a public and direct manner more respectful of authority – and therefore more LOYAL?

This principal goes for all things, but this is a bodybuilding blog.  So, the reason I bring it up here is that in bodybuilding there is LOTS AND LOTS of unnamed authority.  Lots of beliefs people hold to be "the only way" or "the correct way."  And there are lots of products and providers whom people feel should be beyond reproach.  As if we should never take them to task . . .

Let me apologize if these thoughts are unnattached to direct examples.  I hope you understand my point, however.  I myself have been known to launch quite a few assaults on the status quo over the years.  But it was not to create a disloyalty towards the bodybuilding mainstream.  It is only ever to incite and inspire more useful, critical and productive thinking among athletes.  

Besides to name all the examples of where people show blind loyalty withhout dissent would take a MUCH longer blog.

And this one was short and sweet.  Which, in a way, sort of dissents from the importance of the point . . .

You know, that dissention is not the same as disloyalty . . .

I am SUCH a know it all.  I am surprised any of you are even READING these.  What a pompous windbag!  I mean, what am I – "The Official Authority On All Things?!"  I sometimes crack myself up on how I write like I am the law . . . Trust me it ain’t that way IN MY HEAD.  That’s just how I articulate it onto the page.  Er — um — onto the screen.

In fact, I was just telling someone on here today that "articualtion" is probably among the most important qualities a bodybuilder can ever strive to possess.  (So you’d think I’d be more conscientious, right?!)  

It all came up from a great response from a someone who posts under the name "zebrasix" (cool handle – I think I know zebra’s 4 and 13, but am not sure).  She responded:

"i saw [your] thread. i thought you articulated yourself very well and brought out a side of contest prep "gurus" that you really don’t see mentioned that much"

(She was responding to my blog post: http://blog.bodybuilding.com/The_Real_XN/2007/03/20/let-gurus-off-the-hook-the-real-gurus/)

I was SO flattered.  And grateful that she recognized me for ARTICULATION.  

VERY cool zebrasix.

I mean, think about it: aren’t ALL the physique sports about "articulation"?  Isn’t that sort of a foundation of our goals?

In the physique sports we are attempting to articulate ideas through our bodies.  Ideas about image, power, gender, drive, strength determinatioon, sex, intelligence – a whole plethora of ideas expressed through the flesh.  Without an understanding of what it is we are trying to express, how will he know whether we are doing the right job?

But at the VERY minimum — even if you don’t go in for all that deep stuff — we physique athletes are trying to AT LEAST articulate the scope of our work.  We work and work and work, and our given sport is a means for articulation of that work.  Whether it’s powerlifting, fitness, or bodybuilding, we strive to have our work, effort and drive so well "articulated" in our physiques presentations that it can be assessed.

In fact, is this not what the essence of judging is all about?  Judging who is the best at articulating the work with their physique?  Mull that over a little . . .  

Articulation, in fact, is what delineates the physique sports from one another; where the focus of articulation isplaced defines each physique sport:

• In powerlifting, the articulation of the work is in the action itself.  
• In fitness, the articulation of the work is the sequence of actions.  
• In bodybuilding, the articulation of the work is in the presentation of the result of the actions.

But in all cases, it is about how well one can "articulate" the idea behind their work.

When someone recognizes my physique, I get excited for the fact that I have articulated something.  But just as important – and sometimes more vital – is when I am capable of articulating something that someone else can relate to.

I wish more bodybuilders would focus on their articulation – be it verbally, physically or procedurally.  I imagine there’d be a lot FEWER headaches and frustrations out there . . .

Lord knows my know-it-all brand of articulation has no doubt been the source of quite a few . . . !

In the past week I have had five different guys – FIVE – and one woman all tell me their "bodybuilding dream."  And it was the same.

"I want to go Pro."

Over and over I was told.  Always with a sense of pride and filled with passion:

"I am aiming to to go Pro."

Yeah, it gets pretty boring.  

Sigh.  

What the HECK does that mean anyway?  "I want to go pro?"  

Like, when a kid who loves building with Lego blocks decides he might love the study of Architecture, does he tell his buddies: "Yeah, this little Firehouse is good, but I want to GO PRO, MAN!"

Or when someone with a keen ear for others problems always seems to have sharp insight.  Does she say "I love the strudy of Psychology, but my dream is to GO PRO!"

I guess what I am after, here, is a suggestion that atyhletes would do well to contemplate that CONCEPT a little more.  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO "GO PRO?"  

Is this the "end of the line?  Nothing more to conquer?

Does this prove your work is valuable?  As if up to the point of going pro your work was of less value?

WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU ATHLETES TALKING ABOUT?!  The BEST athletes I have ever met are the ones that have found a LOVE FOR THE SPORT.  It is a love that is unique, and is based on what the sport brings to their lives.  It is NOT based on what the competitive physique sports can "get" them.  They stay on their game based on an internal motivation, not an external triumph.  In fact, by keeping their focus on their love for the game they usually end up presenting physiques that are far and away beyond the standards required for typical pro status.

In life, you got to stick with what you love, not chase after status.

That works in everything, kids – not just bodybuilding.  (If you’re unsure of the usefulness of this idea, try chasing status for a few years and drop me a line in your 60’s to tell me how that went.)

But back to that whole pro card, er, thingie.

There was a competitor whom I have not met but whom I have bumped into out here in online-land who goes by the handle rich55.  I mentioned himn in another blog, and he comes up now because he dropped me another quick note recently:

"I am searching for a natural pro qualifier in the September timeframe. I will PM you later and pick your brain. Thinking maybe OCB, since I have heard some good things about the IFPA. Thanks for the thorough write-up!"

That whole brain picking thing worries me – I hope he does not go in through the nose.  

But what I find MOST interesting is how he seeks a "natural pro qualifier in September."  He HARDLY needs it.  If you look at Rich’s pics, he is one impressive natural athlete.   Very shredded and balanced.  (I would kill for an opportunity to work on his posing with him – he is not showing everything he COULD – but that’s ANOTHER blofg for another time . . . )

But the pic that MOST struck me was one of him with two of his clients.  They had just competed – no doubt borrowing and learning from the experience of Rich55 . . .

So let me get this straight:

• The guy competes
• The guy has accomplished some amazing fgeats in the sport
• The guy continues to improve his game
• The guy’s bodybuilding work is vital to his PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS
• The guy’s PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS improves his bodybuilding progress . . .

AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?

Don’t all the things listed above MAKE Rich55 a "pro?"  

Did Miriam Webster go and swap out the defintion of pro one me?  Damn I hate when those people go and change the words around . . .

Such a hassle.

Let me check.

Okay here it is:  

The definition of PROFESSIONAL:

professional |pr??fe sh ?nl| noun – a person engaged or qualified in a profession • a person engaged in a specified activity, esp. a sport or branch of the performing arts, as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. • a person competent or skilled in a particular activity

Umm . . . Rich55 . . . newsflash . . .

CONGRATULTIONS YOU’RE A PRO!!!  

Yay.  Fanfare.  Confetti.  Explosions.

Now, I know I know I know . . . you all want that precious little PRO CARD (ooh, ahh).  You all want some league to say:

"That guy is a pro."  

Then you want to run around saying:

"Look!  Look!  I am a PRO!  See how nicely I sort of SHINE in the sunlight!"

But who are these leagues naming pros?  Or the judges?  Some of them are – let’s be honest – glorified couch jocks.  

Think of it this way:

EVERY PROFESSION has attached to it INDEPENDENT ACADEMIC BODIES which serve to define professionality in a given field.  Meaning, for example, that no college "owns" medicine, even though many colleges teach it and can dignify someone with the professional label "Doctor".  In order to be received in a given field as a true professional, you need execute that you embody the ACADEMIC FOUNDATIONS of that field.  Regardless of whether the field is landscaping or pole vaulting or law or babysitting.  

However, in bodybuilding we have these people we call "judges".  They are intended to "judge" whether we are of professional conduct.  And then those who truly are of the utmost professional conduct wiull get "rewarded" with a pro "card".  

BUT WHO THE HELL IS QUALIFYING THE JUDGES?!

I mean academically, ethically, professionally and procedurally – WHO QUALIFIES THE JUDGES?  

Name me the INDEPENDENT ACADEMIC ORGANIZATION that sanctions these individuals.  I dare you . . .

So her in lies the PROBLEM with the "pro card."  It would be like me pointing to my buddy Ben and saying:

"Ben’s a professional dog sitter."

And everyone asks:

"How do you KNOW Ben’s a porofessional dog sitter?"

And I simply reply:

"Because I’m the JUDGE."

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE THE JUDGE OF PROFESSIONALITY?  Typically it is an academic institution which sets the foundations, and then a private institution which upholds those standards.  Think of those who become personal trainers.  We all KNOW it is NOT a complex process: in the end it boils down to study for a test and pass it.  And even though many personal trainers are grossly under-qualified to act as professionals, they at least have a private foundation whose credibility backs them as professionals.

In Bodybuilding?

No such luck.

Why?

Because CURRENTLY THERE IS NO ACADEMIC FOUNDATION FOR THE STANDARDS OF BODYBUILDING. Plenty of private organizations, but no founding academic principles.  The OTHER sports have them.  But bodybuilding?  Sorry.

Without that academic foundation, there is no truly qualified judge.  The only thing judges are qualified to actually do is uphold the standards of a league.

And who is to say that those league’s standards are academically arrived upon?  Who’s to say that any of the leagues have the credibility to appropriately determine what, in fact, qualifies a bodybuilder as a "pro"?

After all, Rich55 is already a "pro" in essence.  

But I don’t blame him – or anyone – for wanting that pro status AFFIRMED by a REPUTABLE organization.  Unfortunately, as I have been implying, it’s hard to say IF any of the current organizations are genuinely that reputable as judging bodies.

So, essentially, you could go chase yoru pro card but I will tell you this:

After you win that pro card do you know what it is worth?  Well give me that pro card and $6.00 and I’ll get you a burger at Wendy’s.

That’s about how much it’s worth.

Currently, the only people who put DIRECT value on a pro card are those associated with the organization who GAVE the pro card.  

THERE IS NO INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATION SANCTIONING PROFESSIONALISM IN BODYBUILDING.

So, am I saying don’t try to go pro in any league?  Not at all.  Go for it.  Do your best.  try to go pro in all the leagues.  Go crazy – help yourself.

JUST PLEASE REMEMBER THIS:

YOUR OWN ABILITIES EXTEND FAR BEYOND THE DESIGNATION OF "PRO" BY ANY CURRENT LEAGUE.

This goes for ALL of you athletes out there, not just Rich55.  Your love of the sport is much stronger than the goal of pro.  You gain credibility by DELIVERING CONSISTANTLY, not by delivering dramatically for only one time.

PROFESSIONALS ARE ESTMIATED BY THEIR WORK OVER THE LONG RUN.  They should not be determined by a one-day performance.  That sort of defeats the whole idea of standards.  

So, set your bodybuilding goals FAR BEYOND the pro cards.  DO NOT SET YOUR PACE ACCORDING TO WHAT SHOWS YOU CAN TURN PRO!  

As a bodybuilder, you do your best work AT YOUR OWN PACE.  SET YOUR PACE FIRST, then enter contests that suit YOUR pace.  The pace of building dense mass, of cutting to vascular shreds, or managing your posing to a syngergistic and symmetrical pithe.  

THAT is what a PRO does.

As a coach it is my job to make sure that an athlete is at the top of their game.  That they have a handle on their weak points, and that they know the "game" of bodybuilding inside and out.  I have to work with them to diminish anything that might weaken their ability to present competant displays of density, vascularity, symmetry and synergy.

Pity that most of the athletes out there think that "going pro" is the top of their PERSONAL game.  

Gimme a break.

Look for most of the people I have met – heck, for most of the people READING this (all four of you – ha ha!) – you are capable of presenting aphysique that far exceeds the standards of "competitive pro status."

One day there will be an INDEPENDANT SANCTIONING BODY that reviews professionality based on an ACCREDITED ACADEMIC FOUNDATION in order to designate pro status.  We do not yet have that.  

Maybe YOUR incredible bodybuilding work will be what sets that pace.  If you stick with YOUR game and do NOT play theirs, maybe it will be YOUR incredible feats that ignite the demand for such a high standard.

But as long as you play their game, and limit your personal progress on the ladder invented by the leagues, this higher standard will not arise, nor will you be part of it’s institution.

So, when you tell me your dreams from now on, first answer me this:

WHICH is most IMPROTANT for your bodybuilding "career":  

To be merely recognized?

Or to be RELEVANT?

Do you want to merely be one among the herd, or the one who stands out and is remembered?

Your physiques and your work is capable of conquering the expectations and inspiring the imaginations of many, many others.  Through your work – your very PROFESSIONAL work – you are capable of accomplishing feats within bodybuilding that few others ever could.

Where do you REALLY want to go?

Don’t sell yourself short.  Don’t tell me that you want to "go pro."  

Tell me you want to be great at what you do, and you want to be that physique that makes a genuine impact on this sport, and potentially on the world.

Tell me this is your goal, whether you make it or not.  And with the looks of your hard work, I will believe you. Better yet, I can support you.

Set your personal standards high, like a true professional.  To hell with their pro card.  If you;re so damn good, you’ll get it anyway.  No need to chase it.  Stay focussed only on your own game.

Let them know that the only thing their Pro Card will get you is a burger at Wendy’s.  And even then you’ll need $6.00.