photo credit: Katie Tegtmeyer
.I wish there were secrets to this fitness game but to put this simply, there are no shortcuts. Your pursuits may include strength gains, fat loss, muscle mass gain, becoming a pro athlete, a published author… you get the point. All of the shortcuts and secrets that promise immediate results are usually not worth the paper they are printed on.
The Sad Reality
I am distraught by the fact that so many people want a free lunch when it comes to fat loss, strength gains or a muscular body. No one wants to put in the effort to lose the extra flab or to build that coveted physique. For some reason, many think those six pack abs can appear over night. How can you blame them when every ad on TV says we can lose that weight if we buy their special pills or exercise gadget?
The Truth – Hard Work
On another note, all of the muscle bound folks we see in the magazines are a product of many years of hard work. Even if most of the mass freaks you see in the bodybuilding magazines are on a plethora of pharmaceuticals, they still had to endure lots of training over a long time period while building their monstrous physiques. They didn’t just take a few shots of testosterone, wake up 50 pounds heavier and shredded the following day.
The same goes for the powerlifters squatting 1000 lbs. They merely don’t just possess the magical ability to squat a small car. In order to accomplish this feat, he/she spent tons of time working on proper squat form, training effectively, eating properly and working towards a specific goal.
Another example of focused, yet rigorous effort: Take a gander at the fitness ladies who spend 16 weeks preparing for a competition. They exemplify extreme discipline when it comes to their meticulous diet and exercise protocols. Most people would lose their minds after being in their shoes for just a week!
Searching For Secrets
After searching the web a bit, I have listed some ads/phrases I see constantly… They are usually attached to some really lengthy, over hyped sales page that promises you the world. However, 99% of them do not deliver. Here’s why.
Lose 30 Pounds In 3 Weeks – No Diet
This statement is an absolute. In this context an absolute is what makes the statement skewed. Sure, it may be easy for an obese individual to eat nothing but protein and veggies and drop a ton of water and fat in 3 weeks. But the 140 lb. female who wants to lose some weight quick? Even if she could stand to lose 30 pounds, it probably wont happen in 3 weeks, and if it does, it cannot be remotely healthy.
Take Home Message:
- Don’t give into this crap. Losing fat properly takes time; If you have a lot to lose, it’s definitely going to take more than 3 weeks.
- If you want to lose a lot of muscle mass, follow these shoddy guidelines floating around on the internet.
- Don’t listen to the idiots with these claims. Ask yourself: “Do they really have the answer or are they just interested in my pocketbook?”
Gain 27 Pounds of Muscle in 12 Weeks
You can’t tell me you haven’t seen these wonderful phrases all over your Google searches for building muscle mass. Tons of people, especially newbies buy into this crap daily. In fact many marketers are making a great living by selling products with such claims. The product usually is an Ebook that contains all of the muscle building secrets never before revealed.
Take Home Message:
- Most naturals will only gain at the most about ½ lb of muscle per week if they are training correctly and eating well. At that rate, 12 weeks would only yield about 6 lbs. of muscle along with about the same amount of fat.
- Remember that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to training and diet. No secrets sold in the form of an Ebook will make you magically gain an absurd amount of muscle in record time. Sorry, but it takes lots of hard work.
- Muscle gains slow down as one advances and grows. While a newbie can make rapid gains (nothing in terms of 27 pounds in 12 weeks), an intermediate and advanced trainee will build new muscle at a much slower pace.
Gain 50 Pounds On Your Max Bench Press In Just 3 Weeks
Here we are again with a crazy claim aiming to get your emotions going wild enough to buy into a silly worthless product. Bluntly, there is nothing new under the sun. The best strength training programs are widely available and talked about endlessly on many forums. 50 lbs. is a lot of weight to marvelously add to your bench in only 3 weeks.
Take Home Message:
- Heavy strength training is very taxing neurally. I just don’t see anyone realistically making these kinds of rapid gains unless they are a pure newbie who has a predisposition to being strong and starts out with weights too light to begin with.
- Most individuals looking into these products already have experience training, therefore making rapid progress is highly unlikely.
- As for the bench press, making 2.5 – 5 lb. gains per workout is considered great progress. If you are making much more than that, I would label you a newbie for certain.*
*nothing wrong with the newbies, just making my point.
Finally, there are no shortcuts to becoming very strong, muscular or lean. All of these goals take focus and diligence. One must be willing to do the same things over and over daily until they accomplish what they started. Some want a big bench, others want a smaller waist line, some even aspire to be on the cover of Muscle and Fitness. Whatever the goal, if it is worthwhile, you can be certain it’s going to take time. So why not take the time necessary and smash the goals you have set for yourself?
Stop Looking for Shortcuts. Stop Searching for Secrets. Stop Making Excuses. Creating an Adonis-like physique or building a powerful deadlift takes time, lots of it. If you aren’t willing to take the steps necessary when working towards your fitness goals, find another hobby that you can master over night.
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Yea, I remember a cookie diet being all the rage a year or so ago. People were like “I am eating cookies and losing weight!” If you follow the rules and eat one for breakfast and dinner, its’ just another trick to get you to eat less. However in America, all we want is magic and secrets
My current favorite are these new diet cookies that I keep seeing ads for on TV. Eat a cookie for breakfast a cookie for lunch…. voila, you’re Madonna. Who the heck wants to eat a cookie for lunch? (unless it’s one of those Greek diner cookies that’s bigger than your head.)
Yet these sites, and magazines especially, are the most popular media! It would seem as though if you deceive your audience you end up better off… Strange, isn’t it. I can’t stand having a guilty conscience like that.
@James, Thanks for your commentary. You really have a lot to say and I agree 100%. I am annoyed by all of the garbage spouted off just to get some attention, then once they have the attention the people reading or buying into the information are not served at all.
This bloody annoys me. Bodybuilding.com is the WORST for these stupid fake claims. I just saw their latest blog. “How To Get Shredded To The Bone In Only 5 Days”
This is a perfect example. They make some insane ultra-crazy claim, but they don’t tell you that this only works for someone who’s already shredded and has a high percentage of water in their skin..
The only good advice to come out of bodybuilding.com is from layne norton, derek charlebois and marc lobliner.. All the rest is rubbish! All they do is write a generic lifting routine and prescribe a generic diet, then say “This is what we think a professional wrestler would do so you should do it to if you want to look like them!”
Nice post!
I actually added 315 pounds to my leg press in 7 weeks once. One day a personal trainer walked by and saw me doing my leg press with my feet up high and me knees coming right back to my shoulders. This is the way the pros do it! I was using 440 pounds and failing at 10reps. She told me to stop lowering the weight so much, lower my feet on the platform, and bend me knees only to 90 degrees! It felt like I was only doing half a rep, but I decided to trust the personal trainer for once and keep doing it. The next week I added 45pounds.. The week after that I added another 45 pounds.. and I kept going until I was leg pressing 755 pounds for 10 reps. This leg press machine couldn’t hold any more!
But you know what, my legs only grew ONE INCH! Because what I was doing was a partial rep, in it’s easiest form. My knees were going to 90 degrees, but the position of my legs made it easier than if you brought your knees back to your shoulders. So although I could feel great loading up every single 45 pound plate in the gym onto the leg press machine, the only thing I was achieving was risking an injury, and that’s not much of an achievement!
If I lowered the weight so that my knees went past 90 degrees, I would lose nearly all the strength in my quads and suddenly my glutes would be getting used but they are no where near strong enough to press 755pounds.
So the moral to this story is that these miracle claims that JC is talking about can be true in some cases, but they are not what they appear to be and they are not going to work for you.
A new person could make a 50 pound gain in their bench press in a couple weeks, simply because on the first day their muscles didn’t know how to hold a bar steady, and that limited their pushing power. YOU could not add 50 pounds to your bench in 3 weeks, because you’re not a beginner, you’re already doing benchpress and know how to balance a bar.
Someone could lose 7 pounds a week for a few weeks, and end up 20 pounds lighter. But they are probably really fat, really diluted, their starting weight was 10 pounds heavier because they had heavy clothing, they just ate 1kilo of chips and cake and they drank a kilo of coke, and they starved themselves for 3 weeks and felt like crap the whole time. Actually, they probably did the lemonade and cayenne pepper diet! But like JC said, by the end of that, you will still look overweight because your skin will be so loose and there’ll be NO MUSCLE UNDER IT AT ALL.
If you want REAL advice, look for an advertisement that says “Lose 20 pounds in 10 weeks” or “Add 50 pounds to your bench press in 20 weeks”
You know what, JC. You should write a book called “Gain 45 pounds of muscle in 1 year and enter a natural bodybuilding competition” or “Lose 50 pounds this year and wear a size 6 dress for for your birthday” (is six too small?? i’m no sure)
You are the F*$&#ing Man… bless you
So true…weight loss is about lifestyle change, happening over a period of time. The same is true of any change one wants to make. There’s no quick fix.
BODA weight loss