When I started bodybuilding in 98’ creatine was a fairly new product and most people I knew didn’t work out. In fact most were smokers. At the time I made some fairly decent gains as I didn’t have lowT in my 20s but it took 3 years to put on 10lbs. I rarely missed a workout and stayed true with my diet an rest.
These days, actors are putting on 40lbs of muscle in 6 months, teens are getting ripped and huge, and steroid use is far more rampant than we can see. It seems like every public figure has been juicing or at least busting their ass to get the best physique possible but what has it done to the kids?
I keep hearing the same thing on here 20+ can’t make gains, etc. and I wonder if it’s not because of this shift in what are expected gains. Also, how much effort is required to make them naturally. It would only take one superhero movie to make a skinny teen feel like a puss. Hell, even a sitcom these days can make a guy feel inadequate.
I guess what I’m saying is: making gains is extremely difficult for almost everyone naturally. Those dudes at the highschool/college that “aren’t juicing” but got super huge and ripped in one school year, are in fact probably juicing.
4-5 pounds a year is considered “good” for a natural lifter that has been in the game for a while. That is assuming consistent training and good nutrition/supplementation. I’m talking about someone who has been lifting for a few years, after the “noob” gains are gone.
What you have to remember is that these actors - they aren’t doing anything but lifting and listening to their coach, eating what their nutritionist is preparing for them, etc. They don’t have a 9-5 that they’re pushing through, then hitting the gym. That makes a difference. I imagine they are probably getting some help from gear, but the nutrition thing is huge. Also, most of these guys are already in pretty decent shape, and you add 15 or 20 pounds (either naturally or with help) to someone who is already in pretty good shape, and it looks a lot different.
I see lots of kids at the gym who are clearly running gear, and they are young. They’ll be hurting in a few years when they try to have kids, or wonder why they are 50 pounds overweight and feel like shit. Today’s young guys are now getting a dose of what the girls have been getting for years with Barbie or whatever…it creates unrealistic images of what you should look like.
[quote]catfish74 wrote:
4-5 pounds a year is considered “good” for a natural lifter that has been in the game for a while. That is assuming consistent training and good nutrition/supplementation. I’m talking about someone who has been lifting for a few years, after the “noob” gains are gone.
What you have to remember is that these actors - they aren’t doing anything but lifting and listening to their coach, eating what their nutritionist is preparing for them, etc. They don’t have a 9-5 that they’re pushing through, then hitting the gym. That makes a difference. I imagine they are probably getting some help from gear, but the nutrition thing is huge. Also, most of these guys are already in pretty decent shape, and you add 15 or 20 pounds (either naturally or with help) to someone who is already in pretty good shape, and it looks a lot different.
I see lots of kids at the gym who are clearly running gear, and they are young. They’ll be hurting in a few years when they try to have kids, or wonder why they are 50 pounds overweight and feel like shit. Today’s young guys are now getting a dose of what the girls have been getting for years with Barbie or whatever…it creates unrealistic images of what you should look like.
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Well said, Catfish. Noob gains is good to highlight, as everyone gains something fairly quickly.
It really has become the same social pressure for men that Barbie was to women.
Yeah, and it’s happening younger and younger. My 12 year old son goes with me to the gym some, and I let him do cardio and some bodyweight stuff, maybe a few light curls. He asked me the other day how he could “get a 6-pack”. He sees these guys on TV, who look like they do for a few weeks a year, or a fitness model, who looks like money for a week or two at a photoshoot. What the kids don’t understand is that you can’t look like that all the time, nobody does.
So, I have to explain this to him and hope he understands. He’s getting into football now, hopefully this will help him with his appearance and overall confidence. In a couple more years, I’ll start to introduce real weight training to him. I don’t want to start too early with weight, as he has potential to be really tall - he’s been in the 100th percentile for height his entire life.
Sounds like your son is in good hands. When I was a teen they didn’t let anyone under 19 in the gyms. I would have killed to go to a gym when I was 12-13
When I was in middle school, they turned us loose in the weight room, told us about the pyramid lifting routine, and left. We were probably a bit too young for that, but no one died lol.