Jim Seifert, Age 55.

Jim Seifert's Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jim.seifert.1?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARBay8dDgrvokISnnMDOlxxDC_UDvZ3LTgcOCSISRAjSwkwPCR4bst2wZMl_HU8I1FcecN3eHM2qEoOI&hc_ref=ARQUgNg9UOK5WtP1pezdy8UfO-a6QaOYUQYsIaP1QlfE2LeoL1ZeDdkQzJOy05SbTr0&fref=nf

MAGNE HANSEN Inspiration

Magne Hansen's Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/magne.hansen.92?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARCFD0sxHeJUrN6YiX6mQD6V03VRjKqOZczcxrZJghkDT48B6raIanX9SWsjoByNJDZpwyVUUTzk3FPW&hc_ref=ARTRwpTgBmURFqRbVwAe0ch_U0ZbuwZEjBXsi9lCf-98qollL5NYfoM5WXLL2nLtscQ&fref=nf

MICHAEL CARUSO'S Big Accomplishment

Michael Caruso's facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/Mikecaruso69?sk=wall&fref=gs&dti=1906914729564530&hc_location=group_dialog

WEEKEND Inspiration

Loyd's Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017536989050&__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARC58Ol39tRPkC_xCAY9UBxCvHFCm2R-5LbuX3fr6fvaBopES7RKPlvUGxysEKKg3APhiDNMz6L_EgPZ&hc_ref=ARQ5sP5IH_-cZx4MMO4I_W2pzbsOVmPEGira6rlZoUEz4Wb1qYbjLqqwBmcowuFEG6c&fref=nf

Jimmy King's Impressive 2-Year Effort Took A Good 10 Years Off His Age

Jimmy King's Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100042446379249&__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARCAfGUTdHNRY9jueVRmd-rjaiwuS34QRuiuZUmSCUZwxxwJ3HxkxYESHAM-zGiQWYdGW30hR-3NWoO8&hc_ref=ARQuDCVrtqbubebEIR9IpTwwVRbI2Tsfbyq6aRbd3p92dZoev21OgTeFZyqqBPKumOY&fref=nf

The One Good Thing About Having A Bad Cold

Stay Home If You're Sick: https://www.liveabout.com/should-you-exercise-when-you-are-sick-415392

I've had two colds in the last 15 years. The first was mild, but the current one, the second, has reminded me just how miserable a bad chest cold can feel. I had to stay home from my Thanksgiving Dinner invitation. I watched The Irishman.

After 3 days of incessant coughing and hacking I discovered the one perk to that: my abs and obliques burn.

I feel like I’ve had a killer ab workout, which makes sense, as the constant deep coughing produces abdominal isometrics all day long—times three.

Having said that though, I want this shit to be over so I can get back to the gym.

My message to those who don't feel well is, stay out of the gym. The rest of us don't take kindly to such selfishness.

Empty Calories = Empty Muscles

It goes without saying that what we eat should have nutritional value. What we choose to eat either takes us closer to our goal, or takes us father away from it.

Forgetting calories for the time being, the more nutritious our food or snack or drink, the better it is for our health and fitness. But even more so if we’re trying to build and sculpt muscle.

Things go south when we choose high calorie / low nutrition foods, say for example, cheese puffs or pork rinds. Lots of calories, high fat, very low nutrition — and easy to shovel large amounts mindlessly into our mouths while our attention is focused on other things like TV or the internet.

Knowledge requires a whole 5 seconds of research, which can be as instant as a Google search: Enter “nutritional content Big Mac.” This will open a handy chart on the right side of the page with the calories and fats at the top followed by the basics. If we’re serious though, we’ll dig deeper through the list of search results for a complete rundown on whether the nutritional values of a Big Mac make it a smart choice. (Nope.)

If you search “nutritional content mcdonalds french fries” the chart on the right shows a picture of the product and states “378 calories” and 18 g. fat. But at the top of the search results, McDonalds paid-for advertising shows the same picture but states “270 calories” and 0 g. trans fat, which seems to contradict the chart to the right. But “0 g. trans fat” doesn’t mean 0 g. fat, or fat-free. Trans fat is just one of the fats contained in McDonald’s french fries. They don't mention the others in this ad. McDonald’s wants to deceive you by not divulging the true total fat content, so again, you have to look close, read slowly, and not be eager to fool yourself or allow others to fool you.

Facebook Post Of The Day

https://www.facebook.com/david.hamilton.31337194?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARDN4kHXMybETlAQixcTAwncZ0hKCwuTsG2OAK72XL5KeTajbM0lNtnJHqmv1wbHk3BXhjWsF7F7dCly&hc_ref=ARSOhvKgtnQDKPIJBFUijxEYyP0Ctf46pQSvtSF5pVL2Z-KaIMryO_-wiovvc_iJ9PQ&fref=nf

Transformation Of The Day

Mark's facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/mark.dargan.77?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARDZrIs5E9gdLK64xel2peNB3WYoXA5IsVuUUjBSODkLdvkuXr2M0zGuA8ZEH_L3HL5ZPJaUcwpNfku2&hc_ref=ART5PqAGOjf8X9mhuLTUT2jb345O3hgoHPrdEJ0CscJTHfu524tJMwEGFp8EtvqS0Fg&fref=nf

Food, Supplement and Gizmo Fads Appeal To The INSTANT-FIX Crowd

Thousands of years before crossfit, Pelaton, steroids,  pre-workout

supplements,  Fitbits, and infomercials for workout gizmos like Total Gym, there

were only The Basics.

Uhhh...no.

Recognize bullshit when you see it.

If you’ve been alive 25 years or more you’ve seen quite a few fads come and go. Especially around the new year a host of articles and online discussions center on the NEW: new workouts, new “super foods” and more.

What you may have also noticed is that people who got all excited about these things last year are no longer doing them this year. That’s what a fad is all about —a temporary popular thing.

I have a friend who throughout the years bought into a lot of fads. He installed a floatation tank in his man cave. He extolled the virtues of coffee enemas, of taking as supplements oregano and capsasin, of drinking distilled water, then alkaline water, eating carob instead of chocolate, gorging on quinoa and flax seed, swearing off meat for a while—you get the picture.

On the TV show Mad Men, Don Draper says something to the effect that “the greatest idea ever conceived in advertising was the word ‘new’”. I agree, as little piques our interest more than something new and different and shiny that promises to change things up for us. We’re always searching for the latest and greatest, and sometimes we actually do find the latest thing beneficial.

Lifting weighted objects to build and sculpt muscle has been around since the ancient Greeks, as can be seen in 2500 year old statues in our museums. So has eating basic foods like meat, fruits and vegetables and grains. These are basics because they’ve always worked. There’s nothing wrong with investigating the shiny and new, but the next time you’re tempted, recall in your own personal experience how many of these that may have once caught your eye have since faded away with time, while the basics endure.

Why Don’t More Gyms Have A Butt-Blaster Machine?

In my travels I’ve noticed that many gyms have newly purchased hip-thruster machines that are supposed to be the latest and best way to build your glutes, but I disagree. 

The butt-blaster machine I’m using in this video completely wrecks my butt, isolates it highly efficiently, and leaves me unable to sit on the toilet without screaming for two days. The hip thruster on the other hand, despite my trying it every which-way, hits my glutes not nearly as much while adversely affecting my lower back and hips.

I’ve said in the past that there’s no such thing as a bad gym machine, just people using them with bad form, but I might take that back. There’s no way I can isolate my glutes on a hip-thruster machine as effectively as I can on the style of butt-blaster seen in my video.

Fitness fads are successful in the short term because everyone wants to believe there’s some newly discovered magic in new technology, when in fact there’s not, whether it be hip thrusters, Pelaton or other brands that require a monthly subscription for “personal” training, a FitBit, or other machine or monitoring device. 

Perhaps a Pelaton appeals to some who do not like the idea of a gym membership, but as far as efficiency goes, old school—meaning the ongoing challenging each muscle group using proper form—is the bedrock to building strength, bone and muscle.

Doug's Gym in Dallas, Opened in 1962

Doug's Gym in Dallas, opened in 1962: a great photo essay from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2019/nov/12/dougs-gym-dallas-five-decades-in-pictures

UPGRADE? Here We Go Again: New Year's Resolutions Scamming

The only way to UPGRADE our workout is to the raise the bar by setting more challenging fitness and dietary goals for ourselves, and by not thinking that spending a few months' salary on a fucking Pelaton bike is going to be the answer to fitness and a great physique. 

Gym Aboard The Titanic, 1912:

Delicious vs. Tasty: Maintaining A Stable Weight

Lots of people fluctuate when it comes to weight. We’re oftentimes good one week, then bad the next when it comes to food and drink. But if we want to have the sort of physique we claim we want to have, that requires self-control; we can’t eat everything we crave in the amounts that we desire. I for one always want to eat more calories than I burn, which is especially hard when confronted with the delicious food vs. tasty food conundrum.

Something that works for me is having tasty food in the house that I enjoy eating but do not have a desire to gorge on. My personal nemeses are ice cream, Ghiradelli Brownie mix, or home baked bread that I make myself, because I can eat half a loaf right after it comes out of the oven if I have butter and raspberry preserves in the house. If I don’t have butter and preserves in the house I have a lot more restraint. The plain bread tastes great (tasty), but slathering warm bread with butter and preserves makes it irresistibly delicious—which means I lose all control.

So what it comes down to is my having food at home that I like and enjoy, while avoiding buying craveable delicious foods that I want to never stop eating. Granted, unlike many people, I do not easily leave the house just to go buy a food I'm craving, so I have that advantage over others. But knowing I can’t eat what isn’t in the house, like ice cream beckoning me from the freezer or the amazing smell of something baking in the oven, I don’t buy these items very often. Instead of ice cream in my case I buy big bags of frozen mango chunks and blueberries, which I love, and I eat while still frozen. This combo has about 1/3 the calories or less of the ice cream. In my case this satisfies the ice-cold mushy part that ice cream does. Another of my problems with ice cream is that I can polish off two large tubs in a day, which amounts to a massive amount of calories. I just cannot leave it alone—I’m never satisfied, whereas with the mango/blueberry combo, one bowl is plenty, and quite satisfying.

All things being equal, the key becomes knowing what tasty alternatives satisfy you and quiet your cravings.

Making healthful lower calorie foods that I cook taste better by experimenting with spices and non-creamy sauces like salsa or Old Bay or soy sauce increases the flavor allowing me to eat more of the nutritious muscle-building stuff so I don’t have room left for the low-nutrition snack foods craving to set in.

Having said that, people who "can't" cook and have no desire to learn how are screwed. Allowing others to make your food is the death knell to weight control.

And The Winner Is...

This guy wins the Before & After Internet Challenge 👏☺

"Superfood" Bullshit and Outright Lies.

Pardon My French-Canadian, but these assholes claim their granola prevents cancer and Alzheimers.
What's more, there's no such thing as a "superfood". It's a made-up marketing word, like "natural" and "transfat-free". Reading labels is important, except now they're not just lying in their advertising, they're lying on the actual food labels too.

Ray Houghton @ age 57.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007483667685

"I Gained 100 Pounds In One Year—Here’s How I Did It!"

A modern day sportsman.

"I Gained 100 Pounds In One Year—Here’s How I Did It!"

Now there’s a headline I’ve been longing to see for years and years—and yet nobody’s written it thus far.

The internet machine is brimming with tales of people losing 100 lbs., 200 lbs., or more who can’t wait to tell you how they accomplished such mind-boggling feat.

But what would truly be fascinating are stories of how these individuals managed to shovel down so much food and drink in the first place so as to ruin both their bodies and their health.

It’s hard to imagine the level of sheer dedication and persistence required to achieve such an accomplishment, not to mention the cost.

Who were their role models? What inspired them to keep eating even when they felt like vomiting? What was their motivation to continue adding weight even after they found themselves unable run, climb, lift their own children, or do all those things that formerly came so easily? How were they able to adapt to their enormous size and the fact they could no longer participate in so many of life’s everyday pleasures? What’s it like to not be able to see your own genitals for years on end? To embrace the feelings of helplessness due to your not being able to remove yourself from danger? How on earth do you reach around all that fat to wipe your ass? It appears to be physically impossible. Is there some gadget you can buy on Amazon that facilitates this? The questions that come to mind are endless.

These are the stories that would have true value and insight, both for those finding themselves going down a similar path, and for those who care about them while struggling to understand exactly why.

Inspiration: Shayne Dye

https://www.facebook.com/ShayneDye?__tn__=%2CdC-R-R&eid=ARB8OycRF8Yl6HpJZhhGAqmbTIVd3b7c9nWlfigqBBFZ-qjIit9CW60aY7GwnZDKaODuhHMQsMwezzcz&hc_ref=ARSmFW9oG-vec58GFxu8QQDJW9ofCyqKLpjCBTSWI7-6mMhUtsXyLuvoBbGUuGJ_vYA&fref=nf

Speed Kills

Not a clickable video: go here to view:
https://www.menshealth.com/

When you and I are presented with “instruction” so-called that flies in the face of common sense, not to mention good, proper form, I get really irritated.

Men’s Health currently features this video by Tom Brady’s trainer that is sure to put you in a world of hurts if you follow this guy’s lead.

First I’ll go off on “trainers” who look like anything but. This guy has awful posture, a protruding stomach and nothing under that Tshirt that even hints at muscle, yet he oozes with the hubris of someone convinced that he is some expert. The fact that this men's "health" magazine is promoting him as such is unconscionable.

Second, the speed with which this guy has this model do the exercises is hurtful. It is injurious. It is unproductive. If you want to fuck yourself up real good, go ahead and follow this guy’s lead. At 3:15 in the video, as an example, the velocity is less like exercise and more like an out of control ride at Disneyland. Not only does the speed of this action prevent the obliques fully engaging in the movement, but puts your lower back at risk of injury. Most of the exercises in this video are performed at an absurdly high rate of speed.

Proper, productive exercise form means deliberate and controlled, and no one can be in control if performing an exercise like a Speedracer. A high rate of speed has nothing positive or constructive at all to do with building, strengthening or toning muscle.

Smoking Is Just Fuckin’ Stupid

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2019/09/30/vaping-epidemic-series-origins-gupta-pkg-vpx-newday.cnn

How does a person grow up hearing every day from birth onward that smoking maims and kills, yet at some point decides, “Yeah! I want to learn how to inhale burning poisoned shit without choking or puking because it looks like so much fun. It’ll take practice and dedication, and I’ll stink so bad a lot of people will be repulsed, but it’ll all be worth it. And inexpensive too!”

As a kid I was trapped with chain smoking parents in a little house that was sealed up for 8 months of the year against brutal winters. I was sick a lot, my eyes always itched and burned and although there wasn’t always money to buy meat on the 2 days preceding my father’s payday, there was always money for my parents' “sick-erettes,” as I nicknamed them. 

My mom nearly shit a brick when at about age 11 I refused to buy her cigs at the corner store any longer, where she’d send me with a note, which was how it was done in the olden days before laws were passed against adults using children as drug mules.

She died of lung cancer, as did my older brother and sister who were also allowed to smoke in the house.

Now the whole vaping thing is insane, but I can’t wring out one iota of sympathy for people so idiotic that they conclude inhaling burning garbage into their one and only set of lungs is logical, glamorous or cool. Organ transplants are not meant for people who have intentionally set out to destroy their own vital organs.

For Better Hamstring Development...

For better hamstring development try doing BOTH unilateral and bilateral movements on the lying hamstring curl machine, meaning use both legs for 3 sets, then one leg for 3 sets. I started doing this because when using both legs I noticed one side was stronger, and therefore doing more work, so to ensure more even development I did the single leg movement which allows me to concentrate on the weaker leg.

Try it and see.

Charles Eugster, The 97-Year-Old Bodybuilder

The story at Bodybuilding.com:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/lessons-from-a-95-year-old-bodybuilder.html

The video (skip first half to get to the gym video):

Before & After: Glyn Harris

Glyn Harris

"I'm Sorry I'm Big And Strong."

This guy Oliver Bateman writing in The Atlantic is essentially  apologizing for his being a powerlifter-bodybuilder. 

So that’s what it’s come to now? Apologizing for not being fat and weak?

GQ Declares That Millions of Real People Actually Aren’t.

Whenever I read or hear from the whiny schlubs of this world, such as Gianluca Russo in the perpetually harebrained GQ Magazine, that the uncomplicated task of maintaining my one-and-only non-dad body is “unrealistic,” I wonder how does this poor dude not know how transparently insecure and inculpable he comes off? “Inculpable,” btw, is a fancy word that means “Hey, don’t blame me, it’s not my fault!”

I also quite enjoy being called “unrealistic” by an unaccomplished boy based on the fact that I respect myself enough to eat responsibly and exercise regularly. Because oddly enough, I realize that this body of mine has to last an entire lifetime. 

How is it we never read parallel pieces in GQ about how maintaining our designer wardrobe, our motor vehicle (car, ATV, boat, snowmobile, etc.), our apartment, computer or wristwatch collection is “unrealistic”?

"This is a fact: the vast majority of people put more energy, money, care and pride in their cars than they do their own body."

Endless hours are spent maintaining the steel vehicle that carries them through town, while zero hours are spent maintaining the flesh vehicle—their body— that carries them though life.

I have far more respect for people who, when it comes to living a healthful lifestyle, honestly state “I just don’t feel like it” than losers like Russo who write on and on—and on—trying to justify the unjustifiable. No one has to read between the lines to know that Russo feels awful about the self-neglect that gets triggered by his viewing photos of amazing physiques. Heads up, Russo: there are untold thousands upon thousands of males on Instagram and Facebook (and many more not on social media) who belie your screed about just how “unrealistic” it is to build and maintain a top-grade physique.

But I caution against your investigating these, as the sheer volume of "unrealistic" males on this planet might just send you into a tailspin.

SLATE: Nobody Likes Being Deceived

Clickbait has just about ruined what was once an enjoyable and formerly informative internet activity: browsing.

So often in more recent times I’ll see an interesting headline but then immediately move on without further investigation due to the deluge of lies and fakery of clickbait I’ve personally experienced. I can’t be the only one who’s insulted by the intentional misleading of clickbait, right? One key to a come-on is the use of the word  “secret.”

SLATE.COM has a department ironically entitled “An Honest Guide To Modern Life: Human Interest” under which the above screenshot for a podcast was listed:

The Secret Workout Actors Use To Get
Buff For Superhero Movies.

Smelling bullshit, and perhaps a pertinent item for my blog, I zoomed though it to hear the podcaster betray the cheezy headline by unequivocally stating, “There’s no secret workout that only Hollywood actors know.”

The moral of the story is that people desperately want a secret workout or magic pill because they recoil at changing the way they eat and adhering to any kind of challenging fitness regimen, thus they’ll reliably be suckered in by the promise of an easy fix offered by devious clickbait.

Germany's DW Network Documentary on Testosterone

Halloween Is The Only Time When A Disguise Is Appropriate

1915: In the Levi's Pavilion at the Pan American Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco, workers showed how Levi's were made over 100 years ago.

People looking to buy some new clothes fall into two categories: those who want to enhance their physique and those who want to disguise it. The majority are looking for a disguise, a cover up, a deflection from their physical flaws. But fact is, someone with a great body can wear virtually anything. Clothes look best on a fit body, a truth all the men’s magazines ignore for good reason: because they’re in the business of making money, and that means peddling clothes, especially expensive trendy “must-haves,” to the entire spectrum of body types.

My habit, save for a brief “trendy” period in my late teen years, has always been T shirts and Levi’s and basic classic American items. Astoundingly, many classic items that were around 100 years ago are still in fashion, such as Levi’s 501 jeans, Lacoste polo shirts, rugby sweaters, tank tops, military and cowboy-inspired looks, and much more. I really do get the attraction that the trendy and right-now have for us, but I’ve weathered enough decades to be able to look back and cringe at a lot of (formerly) hot fashion.

What I knew I looked good in were basic all-American fashion, which most of the time was cheaper than the latest trendy items. Yep, some fitness model guys do look good in skinny jeans, but in the 2020s we’re going to look back on everyday people wearing skinny jeans and cringe—maybe. Or maybe not, as I wrongly predicted in the early 90s that cargo shorts were so ugly that nobody will be still wearing them come Y2K. And yet here we are.

I currently own more clothing items found in thrift stores, vintage shops, garage sales and on eBay than I purchased new. The oldest item I have is 72 year old pair of Levi’s 501 jeans. Workmanship and quality these days is throw-away, but for around the same price, as I browse selectively, I can find beautifully made vintage wool shirts, sporting uniforms, Wrangler and Levi’s denim items, classic Lacoste shirts and more. While others are swiping thru Instagram, I busy myself referencing my curated list of bucket-list items and search for them on eBay, Etsy and the like. 

Most of us mourn a favorite clothing item that got worn out, ruined in the wash, or was lost. My tip for you is never use a clothes dryer. Line dry instead—your clothes will have 4X the lifespan. And wash fragile items by hand. Washing machines can destroy a beautiful item, but a clothes dryer will absolutely destroy a beautiful item, whether it be a vintage cotton T shirt or a new Brioni polo.

TRT Changes Men's Lives

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/09/my-energy-is-back-how-testosterone-replacement-therapy-is-changing-mens-lives

Unqualified Female Writers School Men On Male Fitness

I am on the mailing list of a female writer whose main area of writer’s success seems to be fitness, and often male-specific fitness. She asks me for input on various articles she is writing on the subject. The problem is that she has a lot of weak areas when it comes to fitness knowledge and expertise, which she hopes professionals like yours truly will help her with by providing our input. My question is, how does this woman get so many writing assignments in an area in which she is deficient—fitness— and for an audience of which she is not a member—male—and why am I, fitness author and lifelong fitness trainer, not asked to write such articles? Why are so many men’s magazines and websites hiring women to school men on male fitness?

I began to notice the many workout, bodybuilding fitness articles regularly appearing on male-oriented websites and in men’s magazines such as GQ, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal and others, all written by females. Why are women given these assignments, and what qualifications do they have? No qualifications are listed; there are no photos of the writer included that allow us to gauge her fitness level, no biography citing her fitness expertise or history. And often the articles are absolute vacuous fluff offering little of substance, such as the one pictured above.

I have the same issue with male writers as well, as far as experience and qualifications, as rarely are these crucial details provided the reader so as to be able to quantify the writer’s suitability for advising per the subject matter he espouses.

As a male fitness professional who daily wears the proof of my knowledge on the subject, I put no store in uncredentialed females advising males on something they so clearly know little about. As a male I know precious little about estrogen and would feel like a fraud advising women on the subject. Are these publications assigning women these male-oriented articles because they pay females less than males, or perhaps nothing at all? Little other than that possibility makes any sense.

Chris Pratt: Destined To Be A Life-long FatBoy

https://pagesix.com/2019/08/12/ripped-rob-lowe-third-wheels-chris-pratt-and-katherine-schwarzenegger-for-beach-day/

Celebrity "Makeovers"—is there anything phonier?

 The list of names of celebs who have gotten into shape for a movie, who then immediately upon hearing “that’s a wrap!” revert right back to their original average schlubness is endless. Granted, there are a few who seem to maintain, more or less, such as Mark Wahlberg and Chris Hemsworth, but even those two vacillate between diamond sharp and puffy, as any Google image search will clearly reveal. Others, like Chris Pratt, will always be teetering at the edge of the cliff of flabbiness, ready to tumble over at any moment.

What’s maddening about this is that a Hollywood actor’s entire appeal and success is primarily based on their physical attractiveness. This is inarguable. Few ugly out-of-shape male or female actors ever become screen idols. And attaining the status of Screen Idol is every wannabe actor’s dream. Yet they bitch and moan about how hard it is to maintain. How unfair, what an ordeal it is to work out three days a week and not eat everything in sight —just so they can keep on earning tens of millions of dollars every year. 

We really feel their pain.

This might seem understandable on some level, as fame, fortune and celebrity status all facilitate celebrating: eating, drinking, drugging, having lots of sex, staying out to all hours, vacationing, relaxing. None of these however are entirely conducive to maintaining a rock hard body, dewey-fresh skin, or eyes free from dark circles.

And yet I, and many of you, who do not rake in $20 million for a few months' work, and do not have an army of employees to free us up from mundane day2day errands and chores, manage quite well to stay in great shape. Nothing in our lives requires this, yet we do it because we can, because we respect ourselves, because being and feeling strong and healthy are important for both our physical and emotional health.

So whenever I hear some entitled jerk, male or female, who by sheer luck has managed to rise to the heights of wealth and celebrity based 95% on their attractiveness, cry on some talk show about how unfair it is that they are under unbearable pressure to maintain their attractiveness, it makes me want to punch them in the face.

The Magnificent Linda Ronstadt

This post has nothing to do with bodybuilding, but I wanted to write about Linda Ronstadt this morning. Linda can no longer sing due to Parkinson’s disease, but I have at least a dozen of her CDs that I listen to often. I just read a disappointing interview with her in the New Yorker conducted by a younger person who didn’t quite have a handle on who Linda Ronstadt was.

In the early 1970s I was working as a photographer for the Canadian Press in Los Angeles, covering all the awards shows, doing interviews with celebrities, etc. I arranged an interview with Linda and was told to meet her at a tiny rehearsal studio in North Hollywood. She was rehearsing there with her band, which transformed to the Eagles a year or two later.

I sat on a stool right next to her. She sat on her stool in front of the microphone two feet from me and sang her entire set over a couple of hours with classic Eagles vocals backing her. I was in heaven. I loved Linda and her music, and the idea that I was an audience of one as Linda sang all her hits (including Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”) was one of the highlights of my life.

The lighting in the studio was terrible and my strobe was broken, and I only got off four or five shots between songs, including the one you see here. When there was a lull I had the balls to ask her if she might sing one of my favorites of her early songs, “The Dolphins,” and amazingly she obliged me.

We lived on the same street, Beachwood Canyon, but I had never run into her in the neighborhood. After I said goodbye I waited across the street for a friend to come pick me up. My car was in the shop. It was past midnight. Linda drove by in her green Datsun 240Z, stopped at a red light and waved. I was embarrassed I didn’t have a car and didn’t have the nerve to ask if I could have a ride home.

My ride never showed up.

Why Do You Keep Falling For The “Easy Fix” Scam?

Go to Men’s Health’s website and scroll…and scroll…and scroll. What you see there is empty promise after empty promise after empty promise of “the easy fix” or "secrets revealed"—both blatantly stated and implied.

Build Tree-Trunk Legs With This Two-Week Program
You're 14 days away from the quads (and hamstrings and calves) of the Gods.
BY DAVID OTEY, C.S.C.S.

Wow! Little did I know after years of heavy leg work that I've been wasting my time all along! Now I can just build tree trunk legs in only two weeks! Surely this Otey fella must be the savant of bodybuilding—look at all them-there official-looking initials after his name!

This Explosive Kettlebell Flow Torches Fat
Get ripped with this kettlebell combo.
BY SEAN HYSON, CSCS

My goodness! This guy implies I can simply "torch" away fat with this combo. The word "torch" implies super-fast, so it must be true that in no time at all this one specialized workout will burn off, I mean, "torch" all that stubborn fat that everybody else says is due to all the crap I eat!  

This Guy Tweaked His Diet to Lose His Gut and Get Ripped in His Forties
“People that I had known for years literally didn’t recognize me. "
BY STACEY LEASCA
AUG 23, 2019

"Tweaked his diet?" Stacey's so-called "tweak" turns out in reality to be a major extended diet overhaul that few others would ever consider, but that doesn't mean the girl's outright lying...right? I mean, so what if there's no mention in her headline of the additional arduous workout routine which demands 2 hours a day of cardio in addition to extreme strength training with heavy weights? Keep on keepin' it real, Stacey!

New York Times Doubles Down On Intentional Disinformation Re: Testosterone

Absolute bullshit from the FDA

It is beyond baffling that the New York Times, which many rely on, and even praise, for competency in journalism overall, can have so many writers with their heads up their asses when it comes to fitness, diet, obesity, and testosterone.

Over the years the Times’ “reporting,” as it is humorously labeled, on these very subjects has been highly prejudiced in favor of the ignorant, disproven and downright stupid. The penultimate example was a bizarre lengthy piece about all the whiny excuse-making contestants on the TV show The Biggest Loser, who following their successful participation and extreme weight loss, gained an entirely new, food-frenzy-fueled couple hundred pounds of morbid obesity once more—the apologist writers quick to claim—through no fault of their own whatsoever.

This latest waste of precious space (HERE) in the NYT is authored by an Adam Popescu, who knows nothing about that which he has been paid (I assume) to write. The article, focusing on testosterone supplements, rambles all over the place without making any cogent point whatsoever. And like all his likeminded predecessors on the subject of testosterone, Popescu manages to double down on the mistaken, disproven, debunked and prejudicial from which any simple Google search could have rescued him journalistic humiliation.

Popescu inserts the preposterous claim of "Some research, however, indicates that men using testosterone therapy have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke..."

"SOME RESEARCH"? My, that's quite definitive! Who can possibly argue with something so bulletproof as the completely non-specific citation of “some research”?

The writer links to an FDA website which, following an unhinged and hysterical headline (see the above illustration), only then, within the article, tepidly and unassuredly warns about some "possible" (as in, not proven whatsoever) TRT links to heart disease and stroke. Then within this FDA article the FDA links us to a 4 year old meeting in Italy (2014 Meeting Materials, Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee) which drew this "possible" conclusion. Keep in mind that it was a 2013 article published in JAMA that has since been derided, discredited, debunked and professionally condemned by hundreds of medical professionals worldwide that infected and fueled this knee-jerk 2014 Italy Meeting "advisory" that the FDA bought into lock, stock and barrel and irresponsibly spread without question, it being the most recent false door to anti-TRT claims.

Popescu, like all assholes of his ilk, cherry picked data to fit his deepest trepidations stemming from his self doubts and his own feared lack of masculinity. The FDA article he links to states, way down at the end (the FDA being assured most people wouldn’t read that far) the following: “Some studies reported an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, or death associated with testosterone treatment, while others did not.” —Yeah, Popescu edited that insignificant part out, the "while others did not" qualifier, since it was unsupportive of his deeply prejudiced screed.

Again, what a bunch of non-committal bullshit the fucking FDA pukes out on us. “...Others did not”? Notice that the FDA feels no need whatsoever in this article to expand upon those "other" studies, nor to include specific data within related to those stated "others." Rather, the FDA included only their so-called "data" supporting their prejudicial and completely disproven “risk” warning.

What a shit show all around.

The bottom line is that obesity, smoking, drinking alcohol, and doing recreational drugs pose a PROVEN EXTREME RISK for heart attack, stroke, or death, while TRT has PROVEN the exact opposite. The facts as shown in multiple studies have PROVEN this: Men with low T who are NOT being treated with TRT have TWICE the death rate overall as men with low T who ARE being treated with TRT.

In other words, TRT Saves Lives—so exactly what’s up with the medical community’s united and deadly anti-TRT campaign?

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