When I first started weight training there was no Internet and most of your training knowledge and nutritional information came from bodybuilding magazines.
These magazine were published once per month. In those days personal trainers didn’t really exist.
The people that normally published articles in these magazines were bodybuilders, ex bodybuilders and industry experts.
In the earlier days the articles were opinion based on anecdotal evidence and individual results. Normally, genetically gifted bodybuilders that would have had great results from a lot of different training methods.
Some magazines contained scientific research to discuss training methods that had shown merit but like all sports the science lags behind the training techniques being performed.
These days a lot of these methods that were believed to effective but later proven not to be less affective are referred to as ‘Bro Science’.
Back when I started training you joined your local gym and you were given a training program and shown how to perform the exercises once and then you were on your own.
Many of these programs were based on what were believed to be effective programs. But there was a lot of Bro Science in gyms in those days.
I spent a year training in a local gym with guys ranging from beginners to Mr Australias.
One thing that you started to realise is that despite using training methods that were considered to be effective they weren’t.
But one thing you did realise was that hard work is still needed to get the job done. These guys worked hard and as a result they still got bigger.
Whilst some of the things that I had learned were not as effective. A lot of training methods have been proven to be quite effective.
After that first year in a gym I started training from home. The equipment that I had at home was limited and this forced me to train with just the basic compound exercises.
I continued to buy magazines monthly and I also found a pharmacy that gave away old magazines for free. I used to read those magazines from cover to cover and try the different programs they mentioned.
In those days there was articles from different bodybuilders like Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray, flex Wheeler, all talking about the type of training methods that they were using.
The only problem was that these guys had access to the best supplements and best food and the other extra supplements that they were using.
My best progress came from following the methods of Mr Olympia Dorian Yates who was doing his so called HIT or Blood and Guts training style.
This style definitely made the most sense to me. His methods were based around 1-2sets to failure and only training 3 to 4 days per week. Short and sharp.
I didn’t just do the HITT training style but most times after trying other methods I came back to this style of training.
There were other bodybuilders at the time touting higher volume higher Rep style training but it seemed the best methods were based around heavy weights and low to moderate volumes of training.
For a beginner, magazines were a minefield of confusing information. This was especially true in the 90s when magazine popularity was at its peak.
Then there was the huge variation of opinions on nutrition. The 90s bodybuilding magazines were once again full of the biggest bodybuilders of the day with their own methods on how to gain muscle and how to diet for contests.
The biggest issue was on how much protein to eat which varied from 2 to 4g of protein per kilogram per day. Which is a lot of protein and not cheap.
There didn’t seem to be any real hard and fast rules on nutrition. On top of that the latest new supplements were coming out regularly and these promised to build you to Mr Olympia size in no time.
I didn’t take supplements while training at home and I was not eating a lot of protein. But I did add a lot of muscle at home.
After a few years of training at home I started university and I joined the gym at my University. It was a small gym and quite old. The dumbbells a were falling apart but it was reasonably well equipped.
There was only one window at the front and one at the back so airflow was terrible. While I was finishing my Science degree I trained mostly there.
In those days you had far fewer gyms than we do nowadays and there was also a few gyms that were the place to go for bodybuilding competitors.
Because I was a poor student on a budget I stuck to the university gym. It was cheap and good enough.
I started competing in 1995 whilst still training at the University gym. I did my own prep which is unheard of these days and made a lot of mistakes. My only rule was eat low fat and eat enough tuna and eggs.
There was no other competitors in my gym and for the most part I trained around people who had no interest in competing so I didn’t tell too many people that I was competing.
Because I was at a gym with no competitors I had no idea what I was doing so my first contest was a lesson. No tan and no definition and no idea how to pose.
After my first contest I found a supplement shop and started buying protein powder and also also seeking knowledge from the owner.
I started supplementing with protein and eating a bit more methodically. As a result the next year I won some contests and placed highly in others.
I also learned how to tan and how to pose better.
Each time I was competing I was adding size but I admit I was naive on the steroid front. I was aware that steroids were around but I was not fully aware of how steroids actually helped bodybuilders.
After many years of reading bodybuilding magazines I came to the realization of why I found Dorian’s programs more effective and why many of the programs in the bodybuilding magazines were not as beneficial.
The volume of training that is practical for natural bodybuilders versus bodybuilders on performance enhancing supplements is vastly different.
Because I have always been a natural bodybuilder I had to face the fact that my training volume needed to be lower and that I did not need 4g of protein per kg of bodyweight.
In the following years I trained with less volume and less days per week and ate a diet much more suited to the volume of training. As a result I added a lot more strength and size.
I cannot fault the magazines because after all they were publishing the information gathered from the most successful enhanced bodybuilders in the world.
The information was partly true but the experiment was tainted by the unknown amounts of drugs being used.
I also think that magazines sell better when you have the best bodybuilders on the cover and their training and dietary approaches are extreme. It certainly makes for great discussions around the dumbbell racks.
Around this time was the birth place of personal training and gym chains. As a personal trainer, if you looked like you knew what you were doing and you were good at explaining and demonstrating your techniques then you would be a successful trainer.
Unfortunately, with many personal trainers they were not using the most effective training nor understanding that much of their science was based on drug induced bodybuilders.
But like magazine sales, the more extreme the training, the more the trainer would sell their Personal Training packs.
Many of these trainers have gone on to build successful gym chains and now the 24 hour gyms that are on every second corner in major cities.
Now we have the birth place of the personal training colleges. Many of these places started out with bodybuilders once again wanting to teach other people how to be successful trainers.
Like Everything else that has been corporatized and made more legitimat. Gyms and personal trainers became more legitimate.
With this progression has come more qualified and proven training methods and proven nutritional methods.
Slowly the dinosaurs have left the gyms as have some of their disproven training and nutrition methods.
In the high ranks of the Mr Olympia competitions there is still a lot of unproven training and nutrition methods but these methods probably work because of the drug protocols and the genetically superior bodies that Grace these stages.
Normal human beings would not be able to follow these methods without the drug protocols. The quasi science cannot be proven in proper scientific experiments because each person has different drug cycles.
I have always worked with people who don’t use performance enhancing drugs with training and nutrition methods that have been proven to work. In experimental and and real life situations.
Where are we at these days. Well, because of Covid 19 and because the world is struggling with inflation and high energy prices we now have evolution to the the Online Coach.
I have been solely online for the last 6 months which has its own challenges. I see now that in the online space we have now started back into what is essentially unproven methods.
The majority of the time unfortunately the online coaches who are selling their bogus programs and nutritional approaches look the part due to their enhanced images, many people are sold to their coaching programs.
Fortunately, there are many experienced coaches like myself that have a good amount of knowledge and years of experience as personal trainers.
As one of these trainers the difficulties come when having to compete with bikini clad trainers with silicon additions and the latest methods on how to build the perfect butt.
This trainer sells their methods through Instagram, Tik Tok and private pages quite successfully and I can only compete by giving great advice, a good knowledge of training and years of personal training experience.
In the gym it was not difficult to compete with Instagram models as my clients were getting great results and were my advertising.
However, when you work online it is much more difficult to stand out. It takes longer to build a business. I admit I’m no marketing genius.
Much like my bodybuilding success and my personal training success my online coaching is evolving into a successful system.
I was never great with marketing as a PT but my proven results was my biggest seller.
After 30 years of training and making all the mistakes in the world following the magazines I have my own approaches. I haven’t reinvented the wheel and I don’t have any extreme views on training and diet. It’s proven methods.
Instead I have been creating training programs that I have been using to transform clients for 15 years. Some clients have been with me for many of those years and have watched as I have evolved with my training and nutritional approaches.
When people get my programs they get the latest of what I know and the programs that from personal and professional experience I know work and work well.
If you are interested in learning how to train and eat and have the most effective training plans and nutritional approaches then Send me a message or an email. My email is below.
I have training only plans, low level coaching plans and I also have high level coaching plans with more regular coaching and more personalised help.
At the moment if you sign up for my online training programs for 1 year you will receive 15 months of programs.
This same promotion is available for online Coaching.
Kommentare