Okay…“Muscular Development” keeps saying that it’s “going back” and “changing” and “getting back to basics” blah, blah, blah. Don’t get me wrong. I have always liked “MD” and TwinLab and have always made them part of my leaning mix. Buy I’m confused. They are changing from what to what? Blechman uses more words like “shit”, “bullshit” and “ass” in his editorials. And there is now a center pictorial and more mention of gear. (Did I just answer my own question?)
Hey, Mufasa, my man…I, too, once loved M.D.!..But about 3 years ago
I Just got so tired of sorting thru tons of lies to extract a pound of
truth!..Same story with “Iron Man.”…I was a great proponent of many
of their theories, most notably “Points of Flexion.” But, again, I became
fed up with what I thought were supposed to be objective articles about
training and nutrition which only turned out to be advertisements to
launch a new product!..Just maybe MR. Belchman has come to realize his
once great Mag has turned into a catalog of tripe which sells “Twin Lab”
products,and he does this to expunge some of his shame!
(Thanks for another good thread Mufasa.)
Any thoughts Chis? You usually have some great “historical” insights on this Iron Game… Mufasa
If MD were a person, he’d be labeled with multiple personality disorder, or perhaps disasociative identity disorder. The problem, as I talked about in my “Naked Truth” article (issue 154), is that MD is not true to itself. In other words, they’re like a politician who changes his colors according to public opinion polls. “Gee, the public is getting tired of roided out bodybuilders? We’ll go ‘all natural!’ Oh wait, now we suck even worse, let’s be like Sports Illustrated! They sell a lot of copies.” That didn’t work because most good athletes rely on their genetics and natural abilities and just do what the strength coach tells them to; they don’t read mags on how to improve performance. So that bombed. (Or I guess it did since they dropped that plan.) Oh, and there seemed to be a brief time when MD tried to copy (for some nutty reason) the softer Muscle Media look, complete with the little “inspiration” photo shoots. I guess that bombed too.
Now I’m not sure what MD is. They’re more “hardcore” they say, mainly because they cuss a little and talk some about steroids (so much for “all natural”). The tough talk comes off as bravado, like a little kid playing tough. (Sorry, Blechman, T-mag was tough to begin with. Don’t fake it if you ain’t got it.)
In other words, they’re trying to please all the people all the time. They no longer have a “self” or a set of core beliefs. It seems they swing whatever direction they think will increase sales. This usually involves copying someone else’s formula. And when that doesn’t work, heck, just throw in some more tits and ass and maybe those teenagers using MD as a stroke mag will notice the Twinlab ads, too.
Twinlab itself has always been in interesting company to watch. They’re famous for bashing a product (like HMB) then selling it themselves as soon as they figure out people are buying it. “Well,” they seem to say, “We don’t think it works, but people are buying it so let’s sell it!” That’s sad. But Twinlab is huge and doesn’t even pretend to focus on bodybuilding. Who can blame them? From a business perspective, BB supplements are a small market compared to items geared towards the general public. Did you know Twinlab makes liquid baby vitamins and prenatal vitamins? 'Nuf said.
All that said, I’d rather flip through MD than MuscleMag. They certainly have more class. And I prefer MD over M&F because they have more substance. So right now, I’d day MD is on par with MM.
Chris: As always; OUTSTANDING!..and thanks! I thought of something else when I read your reply. If they are getting “harder”, why in the hell did they make John Romano’s “Rant” editorial shorter, “softer” and put it in the back!!! His “Rant” section was, and is , the first thing I read! Go figure…