You See What They Want You To See

Today I was looking for something to write and I found a pretty cool subject. It turns out that Scooby has been getting death threats and therefor decided to post the following video:

/note: the nipples of Scooby show clear signs of gynecomastia removing surgery done more than once/

For those at work here's a summary:

I thank all you loyal subscribers, I have always thought of you as family. If you have benefitted from my years of fitness advice, all I ask is that you pass it on. Take some young, awkward, kid with low self confidence and take them under your wing. Teach them about fitness, nutrition, and lifting. Teach them that fitness is a lifestyle, not a checkbox, and that the journey is just as important as the destination.

Some unfortunate events which resulted from my 4chan doxing require that I maintain a much lower public profile for the safety of my family. The only way to communicate with me in the future will be the above website, all social media will be turned off ... and unfortunately that includes the AskScooby forum 

If you want to continue to see my videos and participate in the VideoSkype office hours, you can subscribe here at the link at the top of this description. 

This is a very important issue that needs to be given national exposure.

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Many people believe that Scooby is an honest hard working man who has been training for decades and that's why  he looks the way he does. At the same time many kids are convinced that he does it all for free - not the case. Scooby has made a great deal of money from advertisement on YouTube and his other sites (really a shitload of money). Anyway the reason I am writing all this is to present you the actual perspective:

Scooby May Or May Not Be Receiving Death Threats - he says he is but who can really know besides him? I myself have received death threats from a  guy claiming to be Scooby himself. But how can I know if that's really him ? I don't and I don't care. 

The true reason, in my opinion, for Scooby's "retirement" hides in the following:

"The only way to communicate with me in the future will be the above website, all social media will be turned off..."

The "above site" he is talking about is: http://www.fit40andover.com

This is Scooby's new site. Now I have a simple question - if you are going to publicly announce your "retirement" why would you also publicly announce your new website if you "want to keep a low profile" ? 

If you want to hide why would you publicly announce your new home address?

The answer is: ATTENTION ! Scooby is launching a new web-site and wants attention because attention means traffic and traffic means money in the world of Internet. For quite sometime everybody is going to be talking about Scooby's new web-site. That's his goal. He wants to build audience for his new project and is using fake drama in order to achieve the above goal. 

Well done, Scooby ! 

Scooby's new web-site has a "Join" option which is a paid membership - quite similar to the the paid membership at StrongLifts.com. It seems that the fitness gurus want to create some sort of cults and have money coming directly from "clients" every month instead of advertisements. I am not a fan of cults. 

Scooby's new web-site will have paid membership.

Some of you are probably going to ask: But why did he stop his forum?

The answer is obvious - the previous forum was free and it makes no sense to have a free forum running when you are going to be charging for similar/identical information on another web-site. If for example Apple were selling iPhones for free but with a different name who would buy an iPhone ? Besides, Scooby can always restart the forum, although I doubt it. 

Obviously the above claims cannot be proven unless I hire a private investigator to check what's in Scooby's head and whether he really got death threats or not. However I was not born yesterday and you just can't fuck with irongangsta.com like I am some sort of a brainwashed kid waiting for Santa to come.

In the end of the day it's all about the buck. I felt obligated to explain the truth to you. And don't get scared by the following but: 

Please if you are going to post very long comments consider using the forum.

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Bodybuilders And Pussies

Inspired by this post I decided to make a comparison between bodybuilders and pussies:

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The Truth About Hargainers

Yesterday I got a request from a reader called Redpill Toolate to write a post on hard gainers and that's what I am going to do. 

I am a hard gainer. I weighted 68 kg / 149 lbs in high school at the sexy height of 183 cm / 6'1.  Between 14 years of age and 18 years of age I was also a skateboarder. My schedule looked like this: morning - school - the - skate park - home...repeat. I was not eating much. My parents were giving me BGN 2.0 / (1.5 dollars) for school and since I was out for the majority of the day I was not really eating much besides a few waffles. At home in the evening I would usually have a normal meal. So, I was probably eating around 1500 calories top a day. On top of that I was skating for a few hours every day and usually more on the week-ends. So, there is no surprise here why I was so skinny. But it's not that simple. 

When I was 17 years old I started reading about training - mainly stuff from Pavel Tsatsouline. However I was not able to eat as needed because I did not have a job. Once I got my first official job I went on insane bulk eating 3500 calories a day (yes, 3500 calories is a lot despite what Rippetoe monkeys tell you). I gained 50 pounds, no problem, in three months. Of course a lot of the weight was pure fat. Probably 20 pounds of that were actual muscle which is actually a lot but not when you are underweight. But why am I writing all this ? It's quite simple - I just want to present you my experience with the motto: "There is no such thing as hard gainers, just under eaters".

While obviously anybody can gain weight with enough food this does not mean that the hard gainer phenomenon does not exist - it does. Some people (like me) are just meant to be skinny. I know it sounds different from what you have read on bodybuilding.com but let me explain. 

Usually all hard gainers share the following characteristics:

- Thin, long bones; 

Snoop Dogg is good example:

Note: you don't have to be tall to be a hard gainer but the classic hard gainer is usually on the taller side. However I've seen plenty of short guys sharing the usual hard gainer characteristics.

- Long tendons ;

Long tendons are a problem for muscle building because when there is more tendon and less muscle in the first place the potential for growth is smaller. You can't grow something you don't have in the first place. However long tendons are very rarely seen in muscle groups such as the chest, glutes, traps...etc because it's simply not "practical" from a bio mechanic stand point. Our bodies are smart....

Long tendons in hard gainers are usually seen in arms, hamstrings, calves and possibly lats.

Note: Professional bodybuilding is full of people with short tendons since when you are on heavy drugs you grow no matter what. Just look at female bodybuilders if you don't believe drugs can put muscle on anybody.

For more on this please read the following posts:

http://irongangsta.blogspot.com/2013/04/short-and-long-biceps.html 

http://www.rookiejournal.com/the-truth-about-calves-and-genetics.html

- Genetics, hormones...

Another very important factor are simply genetics. Some are just not build for that muscle shit the very same way some people's voice is just no very pleasant to listen to. They can work on their pitch all they want....it ain't gonna make them another Michael Jackson.

Hard gainers truly exist despite the "how bad do you want it" guys say. Eating more is not going to fix it. You will get fat with little muscle to show for. Unfortunately I cannot offer you a solution that will transform you from a hard gainer into muscle machine. I know a lot of you are looking for that secret magic formula that suddenly blows everything out of the water and you finally get that muscle growth you have been working so hard for. You will never found it. Well, maybe you will if you start using steroids. A lot of hard gainers out there are reading about different reps and schemes but in the end of the day it does not matter.

On many occasions people have contacted me and said that they never grew with low reps but once they started doing high reps they were "growing like a weed." At the same time a lot of people claim the opposite - heavy weight...motherfucker. The truth is that it does  not matter that much as long as you get some decent volume. That's it. 

Note: Always look on the bright side - you are not predisposed to gain fat. I am actually writing this at Mc Donalds. But don't I usually buy tea and come for the free Wi-Fi and the hot girl working at the cafe bar. 

So, to summarize everything in one sentence:

"An ugly girl cannot become the femme fatale but she can avoid to be dirty and fat."

If you have more questions comment or post a message on the FORUM

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Pavel Tsatsouline and John Du Cane - It's All About Marketing

I've written a lot of posts on Pavel Tsatsouline. He was a great part of my lifting career because of his large Internet presence. I have some sort of love hate online relationship with him. It's mostly switching to hate because of a large disappointment caused by my ignorance rather than by Pavel himself.

One of the reasons I kinda feel cheated is the fact that I used to believe most of the crap he writes in his books just like a teenage boy believes in bullshit muscle magazines. 

For newbies: The secrets of professional bodybuilders are not reps and sets. It's all about steroids, growth hormone, IGF-1, insulin, dieuretics, recreational drugs and gay 4 pay. (Thank me later)

The whole career of Pavel Tsatsouline is based on "The Russian Training Secrets". However the funny thing is that the guy is not even from Russia. He grew up in Latvia. I guess "Latvian Training Secrets" does not sound as gangsta as "Russian Training System".

There are a lot of misleading information in most of his book. Some books like Beyond Bodybuilding seem to be like the ultimate way to confuse someone - the book is like a collection of articles some of which even repeat. On top of that there isn't a single article on steroids which are a must if you ever want to be a "real" bodybuilder. But let's forget about all that and go to the sexy part - DragonDoor's marketing.

Pavel and the whole Dragondoor crew are millionaires for one simple reason - insane marketing and digging into the minds of easily brainwashed people. Steve Maxwell (another fitness guru) even indirectly accused the kettlebell crew of creating fake biographies in order to promote kettlebells. Whether Pavel did it is hard to tell and I am not motivated enough to search the biographies of the old timers presented in his books. One thing is certain however - many of the subjects in the books of Pavel are product of his imagination. For example in Power To The People he presents "a routine for mass" called The Russian Bear. He talks about a Russian commando who got huge using the program. However how can you really tell if that person existed ? I seriously doubt it. But wait there's more...

The book Convict Conditioning by Paul "Coach" Wade is like a Hollywood movie. Paul Wade is supposedly a convict who got mad strong using the exercises in the book. The funny thing is that Paul Wade actually does not exist. The publishers decided increase the popularity of the book by using an old trick - mystery. People like mysteries and since we have all seen prison movies where tough motherfuckers do push-ups we are attracted to the idea of training that way, sometimes it's even in our subconscious minds. We all started training because we wanted to be tough. Life is scary and hard so I guess becoming tough helps. Training like a convict (who in movies are often presented as good bad boys who get the girl ) becomes cool. That's how the legend of Paul Wade was born. Oh wait !!! It gets better there's even an interview with Paul Wade: http://zacheven-esh.com/convict-conditioning-interview-with-coach-paul-wade/

Reading the interview just makes me: 

The guy in the pictures of Convict Conditioning was actually the man behind BeastSkills.com. He said all he did was send pictures to DragonDoor.com and he never actually met Paul Wade. Maybe because you cannot meet someone who does not exist ? Also another interesting question is why such bad ass like Paul Wade was not used as model for the pictures ? I guess FBI was after his ass for spreading information about super secret bodyweight exercise more effective than nuclear weapon.

The answer could be found once more in the disclaimer of the book which goes like this:

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This book is intended for entertainment purposes only. This book is not biography. The names, histories and circumstances of the individuals featured in this book have accordingly been changed either partially or completely.

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I guess it's ok to invent a person that never existed if you write a disclaimer.

Here's cool comment I found on Dragondoor.com while digging for dirt:

Click On Image For Larger View

Obviously there are a lot of diverse stories about the magical skills of this gangsta convict but believe me - it's all about the hype. In case you fail to see the obvious fraud I would be glad to see a video of you doing 100 single arm push-ups done the way your idol Paul Wade describes them. You should be able to do this by the time Dr. Dre is ready with Detox. 

See you in next life. 

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Unrealistic Expatations - Give It To Me Baby One More Time

I have talked about having unrealistic expectations many times on this blog and Rookiejournal.com. Today I decided to cover the same topic once more because I saw an interesting discussion on StartingStrength.com (no link on purpose...u mad son?). 

Bret Contreras a.k.a the GLUTE GUY has posted a video of his first powerlifting meet. Here it goes:

The guy immediately got criticized by the Starting Strength fat fucks:

Click On Image Enlarge

While I don't really care to defend the Glute Guy I find it amusing how people on Starting Strength have lost all contact with reality. And numbers such as 350 squat, 250 bench  500 deadlift are not considered respectful. 

Reasons can be found here: http://www.rookiejournal.com/steroids.html

To be honest the majority of people I've seen in the gym cannot squat 350, cannot bench 250 and definitely cannot deadlift 500 pounds. I've trained in many underground gyms. One of them was considered a powerlifting gym and a lot of high level powerlifters from the town were training there. All of them were on steroids. They were deadlifting 750 lbs +, benching 600lbs+ with a shirt and squatting 700-800lbs with equipment. In other words pretty strong guys. Besides them virtually all people I've seen including local bodybuilders would consider 350 squat and 250 lbs bench a good number. To give you a better perspective I've seen a guy who is 275 lbs and very tall ( 6'4 ) struggle with 300 lbs bench for a double. Yes, he was on steroids and was obsessed with powerlifting. 

So, why is that?

Virtually all articles on sites such as T-Nation, Starting Strength...etc are talking about guys lifting insane poundages. When everybody around you talks about 500lbs bench presses it's really hard to take a 200lbs bench press seriously. At the same time there are guys who are ectomorphic and have really long and thin bone structure. A good example would be Snoop Dogg or Chris Rock. Guys like them will need a few years to bench 200-220 lbs. If they don't give up, get on a cycle or simply join the Starting Strength fat fuck community.

"Reality. It hits you like a cold slap in the face."

In the end of the day however the consequences are paid by the brainwashed Starting Strength guys. 

Keep Dreaming Guys. It's All About How Bad Do You Want It ?

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Thickest Back On The Planet

Occassionaly you would see me throw around words like muscle thickness. But what is it? Well, just look at the photo below and you will learn:

"MILO 19.4 cover: Lu Xiaojun (China) bangs away on some snatch pulls in the training hall at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships (Disneyland–Paris) a couple of days before winning the 77-kg category via a 170-kg snatch and a 205-kg clean and jerk.  Randall J. Strossen photo."

Yes, he weights only 169 pounds. 

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YouTube To Soon Be Overpowered By Fitness Channels

Yesterday I was watching the channel IceCream fitness and I asked my self this - how did a video of a guy talking about things like steroids and shit got 60 000 views. The video is really nothing special and has bunch of jump starts and repeated sentences. What's going on? 

Then I look at other fitness channels and it hit me - YouTube is slowly but surely becoming overpowered by those fitness channels Everybody thinks that his or her advice is very useful and deserves a video. Not the case. I've never watched a fitness video on YouTube from start to end. It's simply too annoying, especially when everything could be summarized in a few sentences. The videos are purely made and I am 100% sure they are making YouTube look bad and cheap.

One exception to this would be the over hyped CT Fletcher who is a poster boy for steroids effectiveness at old age and can say motherfucker many times. His videos are really well edited and have cool effects including lightning angles and stuff. One of the reasons his popularity has increased so much. The Ice Cream fitness guy can make 100 videos every day and will still have less subscribers than CT Fletcher for the same reason. With that being said I think Jason Blaha in reality helps more people that CT Fletcher mainly because he is telling the truth instead of making stupid teenagers, who have their parents pay the supplement bill, believe that they can get big biceps if they curl every day for 18 months. (CT Fletcher's recipe for big biceps.)

My question is this - when will YouTube change it's name to CrappyVideosOnFitnessMadeByLiars.com?

Here you see the HodgeTwins - youtube legends in the fitness circle.  They have over 2000 videos on youtube and all of them are cheap as one dollar car. Thanks for the spam guys. Since a lot of people send me questions about whether certain individuals are naturals my answer is: No, the HodgeTwins are not natural and the reason for their physqiues is not the way they train or the supplements they take and definetely not "black man genetics". 

It's........ 

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The Rock Works Out Like a Demi-God for 'Hercules' Role by Bryan Enk | My Take On It

I just read the following article: 

The Rock Works Out Like a Demi-God for 'Hercules' Role

Is it us or is The Rock even bigger lately? Is that eveayne Douglas Johnson has always been a sizable fella, though his physical appearance from his days as a 17-time WWE champion is positively wimpish compared to the way he looks in his several big-screen roles this year. 

We first noticed Johnson's superhuman physique as Roadblock, the heavy machine gunner who just wants to be a chef, in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (March 29). And just a month later he could've passed for the Hulk in Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain" (April 26), in which Johnson plays a generally sweet-natured though hopelessly drug-addicted, born-again Christian bodybuilder caught up in an increasingly absurd kidnapping plan.

[Related: Video: The Rock Is Awesomely Added Into Classic Movies]

The 42-year-old appeared equally-yoked a month after that in "Fast & Furious 6" (May 24), in which he reprized his "Fast Five" role as Luke Hobbs, a Diplomatic Security Services agent who isn't beyond picking up a suspect and slamming him into the ceiling if it'll get some answers. Johnson's workout regimen for that film might have very well involved picking up grown men and throwing them across the room, as he barely seemed to be straining at all ... nor did it seem like he was receiving too much of a special effects assist.

Now, Dwayne Johnson looks to be taking his astonishing physique even further as he takes on another crazy diet and workout regimen for his upcoming role as ... well, the son of a god. Johnson will be playing the title role in "Hercules: The Thracian Wars," a fantastical action-adventure directed by Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand") based on the Greek myth of the mighty muscle man born of the immortal Zeus and the mortal Alcmene.

A series of photos that Johnson himself provided via Twitter show him hard at work to become Hercules. One pic shows him grimacing (we're sure it's just for show) as he pulls down weighted cables to work his upper arm muscles. The medium shot reveals that Johnson will be just as muscular than he was in "Pain & Gain" though perhaps not as, well, wide — his stomach and chest appear to be more toned than they were in Bay's film, giving him more of an athlete's physique than a hardcore bodybuilder's. It's just as well, too —Hercules will no doubt be involved in a lot more actual fight scenes than the hapless Paul Doyle.

Then possible?

Dw man's arms are still ridiculous, though. Another pic features a close-up of Johnson's deltoid, complete with fake scars as he's transformed into Hercules in the makeup room. It's about the size of Texas. This pic is also interesting as it gives a glimpse of the long-haired wig that Johnson will be wearing in the film — after all, you've got to get those dramatic shots of hair blowing in the wind, as Brad Pitt recently showed us in "World War Z."

Another pic takes us back to the gym and shows off Johnson's leg, which appears like it could kick a football to the moon (interestingly enough, the legs are Johnson's personal favorite body part, according to AllStarWorkouts.com). Really, how do the other gym members feel whenever The Rock is around? Do they wonder why they even bother?

It's not all about hitting the exercise equipment, though. You've got to eat a lot to get that big, and by "a lot" we mean at least seven meals a day. That's right — the rest of us barely eat three, and Dwayne Johnson eats seven. He even took a pic of the inside of his refrigerator, which reveals a series of seven pre-packaged meals on each shelf.

Believe it or not, Johnson would probably be eating seven meals a day even if he weren't preparing to play Hercules. According to AllStarWorkouts.com, eating seven times is just another part of his everyday workout: "The Rock eats seven times a day. His crazy diet is about getting enough protein to aid lean muscle growth. The key to the Rock Diet is that he consumes a lot of protein, fibrous carbs, and starchy vegetables. Nutrition is everything. The reason The Rock eats this way, is because it helps him lose weight and gain muscle." Diet AND exercise, people.

And here's an idea of what might be in six of those seven containers in the fridge:

Meal 1: 10 scrambled egg whites, 3 servings cream of rice or 1 cup oatmeal, 3 rice cakes, 24oz water

Meal 2: 6oz skinless grilled chicken breast, 1 cup grits, 6oz yams, 1 cup of steamed asparagus, 24oz water

Meal 3: 6oz tuna, 1 cup brown rice, 1 sliced cucumber, 24oz water

Meal 4: 6oz perch fillet, 1 cup barley, 6oz baked potato, 1 cup steamed green beans, 24oz water

Meal 5: 6oz pork tenderloin, 1 cup brown rice, 6oz sweet potato, 1 cup peas, 24oz water

Meal 6: 10 scrambled egg whites, 3 servings cream of rice or 1 cup oatmeal, 24oz water

And the seventh? Apparently that's between The Rock and his stomach.

[Related: 'Pain & Gain' 5 Film Facts: The Rock & Mark Wahlberg Combine for 17 Meals a Day]

You might also be wondering about that bottle of fish oil. According to Wiki Answers, fish oil contains Omega 3, an essential fatty acid that your normal American diet is almost devoid of. It supports heart health, joint health and brain health, including promoting memory retention, cognitive skills and supporting good moods! In addition fish oil helps to promote immune health and supports healthy eyes, skin and hair.

All essential elements in becoming the son of Zeus.

"Hercules: The Thracian Wars" will commence with walking amongst us puny mortals in theaters on July 25, 2014.

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My comment:

The Rock has been on steroids for decades. Probably since his teens. However his success is not due just to steroids. He has charisma and I can see why women like him. I like some of his movies too. Despite that only a mainstream brainwashed fool would believe that his diet and training regimen are the reason for his muscle mass.

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The Show Must Go ON

Have you ever wondered why despite the fact that everybody knows that all impressive physiques you are ever likely to see out there are essentially guys on hormones people never stop believing that the secret is just around the corner. There are many reasons for that and we can stay on that topic for a very long time. Today however I will present just one reason/aspect - The Fake Image.

The Fake Image 

The Fake Image is quite popular in the world of bodybuilding. A good example would be Scooby. What is his fake image? His fake image is:

He wants people (mostly moronic teenagers) to see him as a person who has achieved his physique through centuries of hard work in the gym and steady diet. Since he looks impressive (in the muscle world) despite the fact that he actually looks like shit in the eyes of normal people (I've shown pictures of Scooby to my sister and my mother and they both think he has breast implants - both said it independently of each other) people take hims seriously. His fake image is essentially the image of an older guy who has the experience and all the secrets. He is also an example how weightlifting can make you immortal and allow you to keep your youth forever. Quite similar to Tony Horton's image although he is less fake.

You need fake image to survive in this muscle game because vision is everything. The funny thing on the other hand is that if you tell openly that you are on steroids you will have much less subscribers - example Jason Blaha has 20 000 subscribers compared to the millions of subscribers Scooby has. Of course this also has to do with his personality and the fact that his channel started much later than Scooby's online porn manifest. 

Without fake image it's hard to attract people. For example I have over 500 pages on Rookiejournal.com and after two years I have only 150 something likes on Facebook. I bet my ass that if I took some tren and got some pictures of me with shredded 8 pack and 17 inches arms I would have attracted more people. No doubt about it. However I know that steroids want make my life better and I am not willing to risk my balls and hair for biceps.

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Rob Riches BUSTED !!!

Rob riches tested positive for Avavar at his last contest. Finally the truth comes out that 90% of these fitness models that claim natural aren't natural! 

To an informed individual this should not be a surprise. In this day and age even table t ennis players juice.

Smile. :)

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Super Minimalistic Routine

My current routine is super minimalistic. Some people may even call it lazy but since I've been training for a long time I've done my share of "non-minimalistic" routines and the opinion of other rarely matters to me when it comes to training. I've been doing just two exercises and it's working pretty good so far. Unlike what experts like Tony Horton say variety can work against by distracting you from your main goals.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” 

― Confucius

Deadlifts

Dips

It does not get simpler than that. I've been doing only deadlifts and dips for months. I cannot afford to train 4 times a week. I also don't want to. 

FAQ: 

What about my biceps?

Dips do hit biceps despite what people think. Same goes for bench press (especially wide grip). I don't care about muscle imbalances that much. I think such topics are mostly mental masturbation because everybody is thinking like a bodybuilder (muscle symmetry). 

What about my quads? 

What about them? Deadlifts do hit quads - not as hard as squats but that's perfect if you have bad knees. My knees are fine but I don't give a fuck about squats anymore. 

What about this or that?

Many people start a routine and think they will be doing it until they die. Not the case. Things change despite our inner desires.

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My Take On Jason Blaha

IronGangsta received an e-mail asking whether the advice of Jason Blaha (ICE Cream fitness) is useful. I've watched a couple of his videos and I don't see what's wrong with his advice. He seems to provide good knowledge to his subscribers while also informing them about the extreme usage of steroids in the sport of bodybuilding. Blaha has no problem admitting that he is not natural and uses a lot of drugs in order to improve his squat, bench and deadlift numbers.

Jason's body  can pass as natural 9 times out of 10. Hell, even I will have hard time giving him the steroid award. He does not look much different than your average chubby uncle!

P.S. We are all free to listen to anybody. However before following any advices think for yourself and decide on your own!

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

- Theodore Roosevelt 

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Forget your favourite guru, they're all liars and pathetic men. Charlatans, the lot of them.

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