Saturday, December 14, 2013

Physiques Of World Class Athletes Compared Side By Side


In the book Athlete Howard Schatz has compared the physiques of world class athletes competing in many different sports.

It's obvious that the body shape of each competitor is highly dependant on the sport he/she plays. Some are big, some are small but that's the price you have to pay in order to be competitive. 



"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live."

- Jim Rohn 













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Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Placebo Effect And Supplements


Bodybuilding supplements have been around since the very beginning of the “sport”. Initially the idea behind muscle building elixirs was started by Joe Weider who many people consider the Father Of Bodybuilding. Of course, like it happens quite often, bodybuilding supplements are nothing more than poor products in a shiny packaging backed up by powerful marketing and advertisements. All of that is still true to this very day. Question is: 

Why are people buying supplements despite their miniscule effects ?

One of the answers is : Placebo !

Placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect. (Wikipedia)

The powerful muscle men who advertise different supplement lines, the well directed advertisement as well as the extremely unrealistic claims on the labels actually make many people believe that the magic powders are working and really helping you achieve “the physique you've always dreamed of”.

Imagine that your father gave you something special as kid – a watch, medallion, ring...etc and told you that you will always be stronger when you wear it. If you love your father and consider him an important part of your life chances are you will fall for that especially as a child. People are not machines. We have emotions and similar “tricks” do work on us. The same stays true for supplements in which you want to believe because after all “ if it's working for them it should work for me, I am a human too”. The companies actually do count on that thinking and their ultimate goal is to make you certain that they have the secret formula leading to “the body you always wanted” and the only way to achieve it is by using their products since “our busy lifestyle does not allow us to get enough essential nutrients and therefor hardcore lifters need powders”.

In case you don't know there is a lot of money involved in the supplement business. When there is money involved in the game – there are always lots of scams and unwritten rules. For example there are many studies sponsored by producers of supplements. In other words the sellers are sponsoring studies meant to prove the effectiveness of the fancy products you see on the shelves. When you couple fake research with support and advertisement coming from the muscle Gods you can actually make some serious profit when you target the right audience – in most cases people between 16 and 30 who try to “get the most out of life”.

Well, it works.

Truth be told bodybuilders don't count on fancy powders to built their muscle mass. In order for serious body transformation to occur they use anabolic substances such as steroids, growth hormone and insulin. Many high level muscle men don't even use supplements – not even protein powders or creatine ! They just consider them ineffective or even useless. At the same time pretty much all bodybuilders advertise similar products because advertisement of Trenbolone like drugs does not make you money and is obviously illegal.

Many bodybuilders consider egg yolks and lean fish a much better source of protein than whey powder that quite often just makes you produce more CH4 but since there are retired bodybuilding legends on the cover and companies “have made detailed research” in order to come up with the “best product” customers desperately want to believe that magic is going to happen when they ingest the miracle elixir which is often just a mix of whey (many people use whey as exclusive food for pigs) and sugar (many weight gainers contain tons of sugar). If you really like that you can keep spending your money on fancy bottles with semi-naked men and women on the label. In the meanwhile real food is waiting in the supermarket for less money. Unfortunately, there are no muscle men on the labels.

Probably that is the problem, or is it ?

IronGangsta.com, December 2013
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Pull-ups - All Kinds Of Them


Pulls-ups represent one of the oldest and most effective exercise. For that same reason I've included them into my top exercises I would do on a Deserted Island. Today I decided to present you a collection of images showing people doing all kinds of pull-ups. This exercise can be done by almost anyone and there are enough variations to make you busy for the rest of your life. Here are just a few. 


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Monday, December 9, 2013

Is Ulisses Williams Jr. Truly Natural ?


There are many people who prefer to be naive and believe that all you need to achieve the physique in the picture below is “good training and sound nutrition”. We don't blame the "ignorant" people out there since the majority of the fitness magazines actually have so little integrity that even bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman are presented as clean athletes or in other words competitors who don't use illegal drugs to enhance their muscular development. IronGangsta was one of those people – so I don't judge. There is a very easy way to determine if a certain physique is natural or not. You can use IronGangsta's guide: How to Spot a Fake Natural or simply compare the physique of the “victim” to the one of obvious and proven steroid user. According to the information on the Internet Ulisses Jr. has the following “body stats” :

Age: 35 ;
Height: 5’10″ – 178 cm ;
Weight: 210 lbs – 95 kg ;
BF – his body fat levels do not look more than 7% (if that) ;



Now let's do a little comparison between Mr. Ulisses Jr. and Mr. Serge Nubret.  


As you can see it turns out that today natural bodybuilders are bigger or just as big as former IFBB professionals and Mr. Olympia contenders who are also WELL KNOWN STEROID ABUSERS.

Imagine that two companies have fairly similar products competing in the same price range and class. Do you think a high end Ferrari with similar characteristics to a correspondent model from Lamborghini will cost 50% less ? No, way. You just don't make a quality Ferrari without lots of financial resources. You also don't get to have the physique of a professional bodybuilder from the Golden Era by eating clean and training hard. Now, you if spell the last few words "wrong:" “eat clen, tren hard” you may get a little closer.
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Sunday, December 8, 2013

Training On A Deserted Island


Q: "If you were on a deserted island what would be your exercises of choice ?"

A: One of the best exercises ever in the history of exercises is the "simple" push-up. It's an awesome pressing movement that can be made harder or easier depending on your strength levels. Another cool thing about the push-up is the fact that it is very shoulder friendly when done correctly unlike the bench press which can damage your shoulder even when it's done with good form.

Since we all know that pushing is not enough and quite often we also have to pull things there is need for a pulling movement. I may surprise you but it's not the deadlift - it's the pull-up. It's one of the oldest exercises for your back and biceps and for a good reason - it rocks. Want strong grip ? Do pull-ups ! Want strong back ! Do some more pull-ups ! Want strong arms ? Do even more pull-ups ! Pull-ups work not only your biceps but also the long head of the triceps - that's why sometime you will have sore triceps after doing pull-ups. 

The Salmon ladder is awesome ! 
IronGangsta's third deserted island exercise is also pretty old school and goes by the name running. Yes, running - not squats, deadlifts, power cleans, clean and jerk or whatever else Mark Rippetoe recommends but good old running. Contrary to the popular believe you can build bigger and stronger legs through running and specifically sprinting. Sprinting is an explosive activity similar to lifting weights and bigger muscle do make you a better sprinter. Of course after reaching a certain size the benefits are diminishing but we all know that natural bodybuilders rarely have the problem of being "too big". It's usually being too small that's the issue. Another benefit that comes with running is the improved cardio vascular condition - yes, squats also accomplish that but the last time I checked there are no squat racks in the jungle and it's IronGangsta's choice ;)


There you have it - IronGangsta's Desert Island Exercises
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The Truth About Bodybuilding.com


IronGangsta.com does not have an account on Bodybuilding.com. We got banned a couple of times and after that we saw no point in trying to post there. The board has so many limitations and the level of maturity and intellectual development is extremely low. Here is an analysis of BB.com in a nutshell.

Bodybuilding.com is a place where teenagers with very little knowledge or experience regarding weight lifting go to educate themselves. However since the site has very strict policy regarding discussion of anabolic substances most people use code words such as "cell tech" when they are talking about synthetic hormone sand other medicaments abused by professional bodybuilders on daily basis.  

illustration by Pawel Kuczynski

Of course there are experienced lifters there but the majority of the forum is formed by young adults trying to improve their physique in order to please girls/boys and feel better about themselves. Since money in bodybuilding is coming from supplement sales (that's why every retired or active IFBB bodybuilder is trying to push a new "revolutionnary" supplement line) the real income for site like BB.com and T-Nation is generated by naive teenagers and their parents who do not know any better. However since the BB.com has millions of visitors every day it is really hard to control everybody and that's why every now and then a little bit of truth is able to pass through the strict control of the moderators but for the most part all you find there are cocky teenagers who have hard time spelling correctly. If you don't agree with them you will be politely asked to "try harder, phaggot". At the same time everybody is fighting for their "reps" without realizing that they are nothing more than junkies and the dealers are the supplement companies, BB.com, T-Nation, StartingStrength.com...etc.
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Friday, December 6, 2013

Martin Berkhan - You Can't Fool IronGangsta ! We Know !


Today at  IronGangsta we received a request to share our views on Mr. Martin Berkhan who is quite famous for his super lean physique, strong deadlift and of course his dieting regimen better known as Intermittent Fasting

There are many out there who believe that everybody who is relatively small must be a natural athlete - it's not always the case. Is Martin an exception ? 

Mr. Martin Berkhan has the following body stats according to his web-site.

Weight:

194-196 lbs @ 5.5% bf

"bf" stands for body fat percentage or how much "%" of your body is dedicated to fat;

Height:

5'11- 6'1 (too many sources to know which is correct)

Look at those stats once more and then look at IronGangsta's guide: How To Spot A Fake Natural Bodybuilder. You will see that Mr. Martin Berkhan is over by 10-12 pounds while being super lean, dry, shredded and contest ready. So, unless Mr. Berkhan was born on the planet Krypton he is not a lifetime natural bodybuilder. 

"Small and shredded" does not always equal natural

Anybody who has been training for a certain amount of time and had the chance to experiment on himself while observing other people in the gym knows that the condition presented by Mr. Martin Berkhan is simply insane and rarely seen in a commercial training facility. 
Note: Mr. Martin Berkhan looks like a regular person in clothes
 but that could be said about all fake naturals out there:
Layne Norton, Matt Ogus, Frank Yang, Hodge Twins...etc.

According to IronGangsta's experience and knowledge the above physique is almost impossible to achieve naturally, especially for the not gifter bodybuilders out there. In order for similar condition to be reached most people will use at least the so called ECA stack (combination of Ephedrine, Caffeine and Aspirin) that alone makes you not natural since Ephedrine is a mild narcotic and cannot be sold without prescription. The Olympics are testing for both - caffeine and ephedrine. However we do believe that Mr. Martin Berkhan is also no stranger to much more dangerous and effective drugs used for reduction of bodyfat while preserving muscle mass. 

Another sign of drug usage is the side deltoid muscle of Mr. Martin Berkhan - such "eye popping" deltoid is quite rare for a natural bodybuilder at similar bodyfat. Yes, you can get that ripped while being natural but you will also be 20 pounds lighter, not dry and your side delt will not be "popping".

You have to understand that the ultra dry and lean physiques you see out there are usually quite hard to achieve naturally while preserving muscle mass. Maintaining similar condition through the whole year is not an easy task and you have to control 95% of the food you put in your mouth unless you have really, really good genetics. Most people don't and simply go crazy. 
Most people go into "banana mode" when they are on a super strict diet.
Since some of you will probably ask whether you can lose weight with Intermittent Fasting I will tell you.

Yes, "Intermittent Fasting" does work but there is nothing magical about it. You are simply eating less - the same thing you do on every diet. Whether you fast for 10 hours or eat really small portions every hour is not that important. The only thing you need to lose weight is caloric deficit. How you get there is just details in the end of the day. No magic here - just a simple calorie restricted diet.

P.S. There are many clients of Mr. Martin Berkhan who will be able to give you a definition of Trenbolone...if you know what I mean.

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Natural Physiques - Here's How Gifted "Natural Bodybuilders" Actually Look Like


The following physiques are achievable naturally. However that does not mean that everybody can look like that naturally but you can get pretty close - without a doubt. It will take time and will hurt a little more than you think. Honestly, most people will be quite happy to look like the guys below. There are many who will say that the physiques we are about to present you look small but are you even close enough to judge them ? If you are bigger you are most likely not......


"We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by reality."


- Judy Garland 


Yordan Yovchev (former Olympic gymnast)

Winner !


Yes, his lower pecs are pretty well developed..(no homo).

Not that big with the shirt on !

The King


As you can see Jovchev is very lean and has underdeveloped legs because big lower body is actually a disadvantage in the sport of gymnastics since most of the strength moves are arm and shoulder girdle dominant. You do need explosive lower body to perform floor routines...etc but you don't need heavy/big legs. He is 164 cm/5.4 ft tall and his weight is 62 kg/136.6 lb. This is actually pretty heavy weight for similar height and is about 10lbs more than the guidelines outlined in the guide "How To Spot A Fake Natural" but he is not exactly contest ready and will need to lose about 6-7 pounds to get there. 

Keep in mind that Jordan Jovchev has been a professional athlete for decades and I doubt he is "as clean as they come" but he is definitely not an abuser. Also as you can see his body does not have that "steroid thickness" and he is not ultra "dry". So, in my opinion with training, diet and good genetics (sorry) you can get to look like that without steroids. 


Rock Climbers

Rock Climbers are also a good example of what can be achieved naturally in terms of size. Why ? Being bigger simply does no help in rock climbing and taking steroids for the sake of being big is not a good idea. Climbers may still be taking drugs for recovery and strength but bigger muscles also equal slower mountain climbing. Who would want that ?

This is Chris Sharma - one of the most popular rock climbers out there

Rock climbers are very lean and have strong forearms and back
while also spotting underdeveloped legs

Not as big as you would like but that's life or as they say it in France:
C'est la vie !
Chick are digging the rock climbing physique !

Soccer Players

Soccer players while not natural (they do take drugs) represent physiques that are achievable naturally.


Gay ?
Did you see that one coming ?

Pretty good physique when you think about it !


There you have it - physiques that don't require steroids. Life is not that bad after all ? Do you agree ?
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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Alon Gabbay - You Are Not Natural !


Alon Gabbay is one of the many self-proclaimed "natural bodybuilders" who are not really as natural as you may want to believe. It's not a suprise that most professional fitness models use drugs such as Trenbolone in order to achieve the advanced they present to the naive teenagers lurking bodybuilding sites. IronGangsta is here to tell you the truth as it is - sometimes it hurts but in the long term it will save you a lot of money and time. 

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." - Buddha 


Here's how Alon Gabbay looks:


According to the information presented on the Internet the stats of Mr. Alon Gabbay are as follows:

Body stats: 


Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 187 lbs
Bodyfat: 10.0%
Arms: 17.3 inches

Note: This information is from 2010 because I couldn't find anything more recent.  

The first thing that I find really awkward about those stats is the body fat percentage - 10%. I don't think he is 10%. Maybe 8% in some pics but definetely not 10%. Anyway in most photos Alon Gabbay is presenting condition between 5% and 8% body fat. 

As you probably already know former Mr. Olympia Frank Zane used to weight 185 pounds at 5'9. In other words Alon Gabbay and Frank Zane are the same heigh and have about the same weight at very similar condition. Here's Frank Zane:




Some of you may argue that Alon Gabbay "has nothing on Frank Zane" but this is not our main focus right now. Obviously both guys represent very similar muscular development at the same heigh. However Mr. Alan Gabbay has reached that size much younger and that's why he lacks what most people would call "muscle maturity". Natural bodybuilder is not supposed to be as big as Mr. Olympia title holder who used to abuse a lot of drugs including growth hormone and steroids. Somethink to think about !


Alon Gabbay and Jeff Seid - both look very good but are not natural bodybuilders


IronGangsta has no problems with Alon Gabbay taking steroids to achieve that kind of muscular development. However, we do have a problem with pipe dreams being spread around. We don't like that and that's why we tell you the truth - similar body cannot be achieved without the use of anabolic drugs of some kind. 

Actually you will need lots of them.

We are are sorry your "dreams" may be broken but you deserve to know the truth even if it hurts and is hard to accept - it's better in the long term.
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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

True-Natural-Bodybuilding.com - Try Again ! You Are Not Natural !


This web-page is dedicated to "natural bodybuilding" but of course the reality is much different. The model on that site is not natural, not even close and his purpose is simply to make money from his web-site and training principles. However he is a poster boy for steroid usage and is so far from "true natural bodybuilding" that even little kids should know he is a fraud. How do I know ?  Well, you are about to see. Read on !


"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth." - Mahatma Gandhi




As you can see according to this guy this is how a "true natural bodybuilder" looks next to an IFBB Pro Dennis James who was a Mr. Olympia contender for many years. You think a "true natural bodybuilder" will look like this next to a top professional bodybuilder taking grams of steroids, growth hormone and what not ? Honestly, pictures like that are almost an insult. 

Here is what this true natty has to say about steroids:

"What I don't like is all the hypocrisy and lies about drug use. However, I understand that most bodybuilders don't want to admit their drug use because it is illegal after all, and it's not really cool to admit that most of your muscles are the result of drugs rather than good genetics, proper diet and hard training."

"I love to watch the top professional bodybuilders. I love to watch contest and training videos. I have been at the Mr. Olympia contest in 1997, the Musclemania Wold Championships in 2007, and I am dreaming to go once to the Arnold Classic. I love to work out in gyms where there are many big, muscular, strong man training in the hard core fashion, because it creates a motivating atmosphere. Several of my friends are doped bodybuilders. I respect everybody's choice to be a true natural bodybuilder or not."

So, Mr. True Natural Bodybuilder is a hardcore bodybuilding fan, has many friends taking drugs, looks super big, has lean 20 inches arms and yet he decided to stay "natural" ? 

Yes, it makes perfect sense. 

Mr. True Natty, please, the next time you claim you are 100% true lifetime natural bodybuilder make sure you tell it to a bunch of 10-15 year old kids which will probably believe you. We ain't that stupid and ignorant. Try harder. We all know you are as natural as this guy:


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Sunday, December 1, 2013

How To Spot A Fake Natural Bodybuilder - IronGangsta's Guide


Since the very beginning IronGangsta has been informing its readers about all fake natural bodybuilders out there. But how do you spot a fake natural bodybuilder ? There are many guides out there and we beleive that IronGangsta mush have one as well !

The easiest way to spot a fake natural bodybuilder is to analyze his weight to height ratio while taking into consideration the body fat levels of the "athlete".

Example:

If someone is 200lbs/6'1 while being 5-8% body fat it's quite unlikely for him/her (haha..) to be natural. You can see the general guidelines for natural bodybuilders outlined below. Keep in mind that the weight listed comes with 5% BF (really hard to maintain and achieve without killing somebody around you or simply being a crazy/dedicated person on a very strict diet).

5'11  177 
5'10  170 
5' 9   163 
5'8    154 
5'7    147 

For every inch of height below or above 5'10 you add/remove 7 lbs. This is the maximum muscle a natural bodybuilder who is really dedicated and has favorable genetics for bodybuilding as well as lifestyle able to support such life (strict diets, less stress...etc) will ever achieve. Most people would be pretty happy with such physique. Of course the magazine, YouTube...etc ave made many lifters overestimate what kind of physique you can actually achieve without taking drugs, hormones and other drugs.

Let's take a look at some fake "natural" bodybuilders:

Jeff Seid 

Note: Jeff Seid is a few years older now but this does not make him more "natural".

As you can see Jeff Seid is 10 pounds over his "natural weight" at the age of 17.  While 10 pounds do not seem like a lot you have to keep in mind that the numbers listed above are only for natural bodybuilders much older that 17 who have been training for years. In order to illustrate this even better please look at the following picture.

6' tall and 200lbs heavy

The guy in the picture is Serge Nubret and this photo is taken at Mr. Olympia 1975. According to Serge himself he was 200lbs and 6' at that competition. He finished second. If Jeff Seid is telling the truth about his bodyweight he is only about 10-15lbs less than a Mr. Olympia contender from the 70s. The difference is 5 lbs but we add 10lbs because most likely Serge Nubret was heavily dehydrated during Mr. Olympia 1975 while Jeff Seid is not. When you keep all that information into consideration it becomes that obvious Jeff Seid is as natural as Serge Nubret.

Note: Some people have also reported that Jeff Seid is usually making himself taller than he actually is. Sweet.

You say "good genetics" ? Try harder we are not that stupid.


Josh Hyaduck


Josh Hyaduck is another fake natural bodybuilder. He is only 5'6 tall but weights 186 at very low body fat. Frank Zane who was a well known steroid abuser and Mr. Olympia title holder competed at the weight of 185lbs at 5'9. I think it is safe to make the conclusion that Josh Hyaduck is as natural as Frank Zane.

Obviously the above method is quite easy but there are also other ways to spot a fake natural bodybuilder.


This is a picture of the famous Lazar Angelov. Take a look at his shoulder, face and overall thickness. Natural bodybuilders will never ever have full shoulders especially at such low body fat. Second, his body looks so dry and thick it's not even funny. Very hard look to achieve naturally.

Below is an even better example of a thick, "shredded" and dry body on steroids.

This is Ben Noy, another fitness model


Achieving the above muscle separation and level of leanness is pretty much an impossible task to achieve with just clean eating and lifting weights. If you want to try anyway say goodbye to lots of time and money only to fail.

Another think you have to take into consideration when you are wondering whether someone is natural is the source of his/her financial income. For example the majority of the fitness models and bodybuilders out there make most of the money through contracts with supplements companies, magazine covers...etc.

Obviously if an athlete is making money through the mentioned scheme he/she won't benefit at all if everybody knew he/she was using anabolic substances to achieve “them gains”. Drugs are not well tolerated by the media and people using them are considered “cheaters”. To an extend they are because they cheat the public and mainly their followers.

Look at the number of people who liked the Facebook page of Lazar Angelov – as of now it is something like 930 000. The reason for is the fact that many people aspire to look like that and believe they can actually achieve similar muscular development naturally. Obviously everybody has different motivation but the majority of men would like to look like Lazar in order to attract the attention of women. Show a picture of Lazar to 10 women and while some won't approve they will all be willing to test him for one night. Now if you tell all that 930 000 or so people that pretty much all professional fitness models are not lifetime natural bodybuilders the interest will drop because suddenly everybody will realize that the sacrifice they have to make in order to look like their heroes is much larger and the consequences are much more serious. The interest will drop pretty fast and the supplements sells will go down as well. 

Who would want that ?

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