Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 12, 2022 9:25:12 GMT -5
Story Listed as: True Life For Adults Theme: Drama / Human Interest Subject: Childhood / Youth Published: 04/12/2021
One thing that kids who take up bodybuilding have in common, are expectations based on their constant bodybuilding efforts. Such expectations can be either reasonable or unreasonable. Unfortunately, kids are prone to have unreasonable expectations and tend to believe false advertising much more readily than do adults. Of course, in this dog-eat-dog world, this renders them tempting targets for unscrupulous advertisers who are hell-bent on maximizing profit at any cost.
As kids, back in the 1960s, we found this to be the case. For us, if information providing advice was allowed to be published in a magazine, then it had to be true. So we believed everything that we were being constantly told in such magazines as, Mr. America, Mister Universe, and Bodybuilder, from which we constantly sought advice. We naively believed all the tantalizing results they promised would result from doing exercises. We wholeheartedly trusted the constant propaganda declarations that it all totally depended on our following the advice provided within their pages and our willingness to apply it.
So if we were failing to bulk-up and having well-defined, 17-inch-circumferenced arms as promised, after years of sweating and straining with the weights, then it had to be because we had to be doing something wrong. Maybe we were not increasing the weights gradually enough in order to induce muscular hypertrophy as the magazines explained? Or maybe we were not doing the repetitions in the correct manner? After all, the bicep curls needed to be done just right. Right? Or maybe we needed to do supersets? Yeah! That had to be it. Supersets! That would definitely force the muscles to repair themselves and add the bulk that we were seeking!
In short, there was always some dubious rationalization as to why we were not getting the promised results and it was always attributed to us of course since obviously, according to these magazines, others were definitely having success with the instructions that the magazines were providing. Why there they were! Providing testimonies of the effectiveness of the methods recommended. There they were! Smilingly posing in all their muscular glory as evidence that the recommended methods indeed did work if applied correctly.
So we put our young gullible hearts into it while, the people paying these models to pose for their misleading articles in their magazines were gleefully raking in the profits from believers in their bullshit who naively splurged precious time and effort and the little amount of money they had on buying equipment, such as barbells, dumbbells, rowing machines, gym-fees, and supplements such as concentrated protein supplements that promised miraculous results. Of course, they were advising us out of the goodness of their hearts and not because certain individuals who were at the forefront of the BS becoming millionaires with nary a twinge of conscience to their credit.
The bitter truth, of course, was, that unless we were genetically endowed with a predisposition towards muscularity and risked our health by taking steroids on a regular basis, then we would never even come close to looking like the behemoths displayed on the pages of those magazines. These very essential facts were never even remotely mentioned but were cunningly kept hidden. Instead, only the urgent need to do more sets and supersets, increase weight gradually and sooner or later, voilà! The transformation would take place. Frustrated bodybuilders were regularly featured in the magazines and advice to try harder was always provided as a remedy for their frustration.
The truth was that their bodies had taken them as far as they could ever hope to go and nothing further, regardless of effort without the use of steroids and genetics, was possible. But they were told to work harder, since that would keep the profits flowing in. Never mind the tendency a person might have had towards being obese or concealing muscle beneath fat, or the body-type we had been strapped with at birth. According to these materialistic hypocrites, bodybuilding would magically nullify all that.
So we fell for it hook line and sinker, as the saying goes, We wanted Pecs like the famous movie star bodybuilder Steve Reeves who played the role of Hercules in various films? Just do wide-gripped bench presses. We wanted Lats like Lou Ferrigno, the fellow who played the Hulk on TV? Just do plenty of rowing exercises. Did we desire wide shoulders? Just furiously do deltoid work from all angles and gradually increase the weight. Meanwhile, the years went by, and that spectacular miracle stubbornly refused to happen because the genetics and steroids were missing.
All Women Attracted to Muscular Behemoths Propaganda
Of course the ones making profit knew how urgently we heterosexual males seek female admiration and capitalized on that natural tendency big time! So there was this cunningly-orchestrated, constant propaganda of young, gorgeous, females supposedly being invariably attracted to the freakish looking musclemen.
These luscious females were invariably presented on the covers and pages of such magazines gazing up at, and clinging longingly to these muscular men as if they were gods, conveying the message, that in order to gain feminine approval, we needed to bulk up to their gargantuan proportions. Yet, most women I spoke to said that they didn't like men who were as extremely muscular as professional bodybuilders were, but preferred a more normal appearance. We, of course, hoist on our own delusional petard, chose to view these women as either liars or weird. After all, would these magazines lie to us? It was as if those magazines had achieved a sacred religious-book status in our minds and anyone who said anything contrary to what they advocated was to be considered blasphemous.
Eventually, of course, those of us who did not have the genetic preconditions to excel or achieve even a semblance of what was being promised, realized the futility of our efforts and stopped. Then, a few years later, we suddenly began hearing the truth from a famous bodybuilder who sheepishly admitted that in addition to the genetic predisposition, these behemoths were taking steroids. In fact, they were even buying them illegally and ruining their health in the process just to attain the freakish appearances that were so proudly displayed on the pages of those magazines.
Of course, this is not to say that we didn’t gain benefits from our fanatical dedication. Sure we did! We were stronger and healthier than most other boys our age. Nevertheless, no one should be fed false hopes and be used as a means to attain a materialistic goal as we were.
Bodybuilding Dishonestly and Fomentation of Unreasonable Expectations
by Radrook
by Radrook
One thing that kids who take up bodybuilding have in common, are expectations based on their constant bodybuilding efforts. Such expectations can be either reasonable or unreasonable. Unfortunately, kids are prone to have unreasonable expectations and tend to believe false advertising much more readily than do adults. Of course, in this dog-eat-dog world, this renders them tempting targets for unscrupulous advertisers who are hell-bent on maximizing profit at any cost.
As kids, back in the 1960s, we found this to be the case. For us, if information providing advice was allowed to be published in a magazine, then it had to be true. So we believed everything that we were being constantly told in such magazines as, Mr. America, Mister Universe, and Bodybuilder, from which we constantly sought advice. We naively believed all the tantalizing results they promised would result from doing exercises. We wholeheartedly trusted the constant propaganda declarations that it all totally depended on our following the advice provided within their pages and our willingness to apply it.
So if we were failing to bulk-up and having well-defined, 17-inch-circumferenced arms as promised, after years of sweating and straining with the weights, then it had to be because we had to be doing something wrong. Maybe we were not increasing the weights gradually enough in order to induce muscular hypertrophy as the magazines explained? Or maybe we were not doing the repetitions in the correct manner? After all, the bicep curls needed to be done just right. Right? Or maybe we needed to do supersets? Yeah! That had to be it. Supersets! That would definitely force the muscles to repair themselves and add the bulk that we were seeking!
In short, there was always some dubious rationalization as to why we were not getting the promised results and it was always attributed to us of course since obviously, according to these magazines, others were definitely having success with the instructions that the magazines were providing. Why there they were! Providing testimonies of the effectiveness of the methods recommended. There they were! Smilingly posing in all their muscular glory as evidence that the recommended methods indeed did work if applied correctly.
So we put our young gullible hearts into it while, the people paying these models to pose for their misleading articles in their magazines were gleefully raking in the profits from believers in their bullshit who naively splurged precious time and effort and the little amount of money they had on buying equipment, such as barbells, dumbbells, rowing machines, gym-fees, and supplements such as concentrated protein supplements that promised miraculous results. Of course, they were advising us out of the goodness of their hearts and not because certain individuals who were at the forefront of the BS becoming millionaires with nary a twinge of conscience to their credit.
The bitter truth, of course, was, that unless we were genetically endowed with a predisposition towards muscularity and risked our health by taking steroids on a regular basis, then we would never even come close to looking like the behemoths displayed on the pages of those magazines. These very essential facts were never even remotely mentioned but were cunningly kept hidden. Instead, only the urgent need to do more sets and supersets, increase weight gradually and sooner or later, voilà! The transformation would take place. Frustrated bodybuilders were regularly featured in the magazines and advice to try harder was always provided as a remedy for their frustration.
The truth was that their bodies had taken them as far as they could ever hope to go and nothing further, regardless of effort without the use of steroids and genetics, was possible. But they were told to work harder, since that would keep the profits flowing in. Never mind the tendency a person might have had towards being obese or concealing muscle beneath fat, or the body-type we had been strapped with at birth. According to these materialistic hypocrites, bodybuilding would magically nullify all that.
So we fell for it hook line and sinker, as the saying goes, We wanted Pecs like the famous movie star bodybuilder Steve Reeves who played the role of Hercules in various films? Just do wide-gripped bench presses. We wanted Lats like Lou Ferrigno, the fellow who played the Hulk on TV? Just do plenty of rowing exercises. Did we desire wide shoulders? Just furiously do deltoid work from all angles and gradually increase the weight. Meanwhile, the years went by, and that spectacular miracle stubbornly refused to happen because the genetics and steroids were missing.
All Women Attracted to Muscular Behemoths Propaganda
Of course the ones making profit knew how urgently we heterosexual males seek female admiration and capitalized on that natural tendency big time! So there was this cunningly-orchestrated, constant propaganda of young, gorgeous, females supposedly being invariably attracted to the freakish looking musclemen.
These luscious females were invariably presented on the covers and pages of such magazines gazing up at, and clinging longingly to these muscular men as if they were gods, conveying the message, that in order to gain feminine approval, we needed to bulk up to their gargantuan proportions. Yet, most women I spoke to said that they didn't like men who were as extremely muscular as professional bodybuilders were, but preferred a more normal appearance. We, of course, hoist on our own delusional petard, chose to view these women as either liars or weird. After all, would these magazines lie to us? It was as if those magazines had achieved a sacred religious-book status in our minds and anyone who said anything contrary to what they advocated was to be considered blasphemous.
Eventually, of course, those of us who did not have the genetic preconditions to excel or achieve even a semblance of what was being promised, realized the futility of our efforts and stopped. Then, a few years later, we suddenly began hearing the truth from a famous bodybuilder who sheepishly admitted that in addition to the genetic predisposition, these behemoths were taking steroids. In fact, they were even buying them illegally and ruining their health in the process just to attain the freakish appearances that were so proudly displayed on the pages of those magazines.
Of course, this is not to say that we didn’t gain benefits from our fanatical dedication. Sure we did! We were stronger and healthier than most other boys our age. Nevertheless, no one should be fed false hopes and be used as a means to attain a materialistic goal as we were.