This post is a little different. I don’t really have a question. It is a little long winded, but please hear me out. I have noticed that often times young lifters (approx. 16-19 yrs) will post questions and get seemingly ‘harsh’ advice, and may feel that they are being ‘picked on’ by vets because of young age. I don’t think that is the intention. Let me explain.
You see, when I started training over 15 years ago, there was no internet. The only ‘advice’ you could get was from muscle rags who pushed 20 sets to failure, 6 days a week and to eat as much fatty food as possible. After all, that is what all the ‘champs’ did, right ? There were no effective supplements. Back then the only protein supplements you could get were old, denatured, worthless powder. I wasted my first several training years making virtually no progress. I eventually got my ‘program’ together and made some actually pretty good progress between ages 17-20 training each bodypart 3 times weekly and basically eating everything in sight. You may laugh, but back then that was the best you could do and the best of the current knowledge at the time. It was the twilight zone after anabolics became scheduled drugs and before any effective natural supps were discovered. Anyway, as Ian’s article in this week’s T-mag issue has elucidated, the favorable hormone profile of the late teen years declines rapidly. By the time I was 22, I could already notice a largely diminished recovery ability and metabolic slowdown.
What is the point of all this? I believe that the guys with more experience (10 years+, like Bodz for example) are simply trying to make sure that you don’t waste those ‘golden’ training years. It is always mentioned that T levels are at its pinnacle at this time. Maybe not high per se, but the highest they will ever be in YOUR body, at least without exogenous help. But what I’ve noticed that is rarely if ever discussed is the fact that growth hormone, IGF, insulin sensitivity, thyroid activity, and relatively low estrogen and cortisol are also at their best levels at this age. The synergism found with this anabolic hormone profile is far more effective than raising any single hormone value alone. In addition, with the advent of T-mag, we all now have literally world class training programs, expert pharmaceutical advice by venerable ‘real world’ chemists, and cutting edge diet and supplementation strategies for free at our fingertips. This, plus all the supplements we now take for granted and consider ‘old hat’ like MRPs, creatine, glutamine, Methoxy, etc. we ‘old timers’ would have died for years ago.
On top of all this, via the Forum you can get virtually any question on any topic answered usually within less than 24 hours by intelligent, experienced lifters from literally around the world. Hey, its never been easy building muscle, I’m not saying that. But you younger guys have to understand that we were once you age, in your position, and have been through all the plateaus, impasses in progress, and frustrations that you have now and will probably face in the future. We are only trying to help. Make the best of these tremendous resources currently available, get huge, and have fun too!
Peace, Prodigal Son out.
So yeah, i just wanted to say thanx to all you who have taken YOUR time to help us out. No matter how bad you all come off, i know you only have our best interests at heart. So thanx guys, and keep it up, sooner or later we’ll all realize what you guys did for us. Take it easy.