My Personal Pet Peeves about the Current BBing/Fitness Scene

The ones that couldn’t do what I asked are right where they started. It’s been about 8 weeks now.

As someone who found fitness in social media with DLB’s youtube stuff back when she first started making those videos, my biggest pet peeve in the fitness industry now is the amount of production that goes into it.

Why do we need to see someone doing bicep curls in SLOW MOTION? What is up with all the drones filming people entering the gym or doing cardio on the beach? When you see behind the scenes stuff, there’s now professional lighting around these people…

I fell in love with the gym from watching Dorian Yates videos and DLB videos where you just go into a basement or warehouse or dungeon gym and work hard without fancy equipment. It’s just you and your sweat. So, I wonder how all these people can even enjoy the gym with all the production and equipment.

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What we see is their day job so it’s probably easier to tolerate the production. If I built myself up enough to make money off training then I’d be OK with the dog and pony show.

Social Media has saturated the fitness market horribly. So how do you separate yourself from the pack? Novelty or presentation.

I’m considering giving the online training thing a whirl but I can’t commit. It’s hard for me to put out videos every day/week and I’m not really feeling the urge to put out motivational videos like Alpha. It’s not my personality. And lastly, I’m boring. You won’t get fancy stuff from me. Actually, you won’t very anything that you can’t already get free online from places like this.

The reality in fitness is that the methods don’t change much. The only reason anyone needs a coach is to present the information in a way they can understand…and to teach techniques.

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“the subtle/rant on social media about what others are doing, which is nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt to get attention and present yourself as an authority figure or expert.”

lol, Brad brings this up to me a lot,… the “have you seen so and so’s latest FB rant?! Why do they even care?!”…

Basically you have “coaches” constantly publically complaining about what other people are doing. Now, does it really hurt them? Not really. Does it impact their own business? Nope. But in complaining, they are positioning themselves up as someone who knows better, and in reading their obvious anguish over such a situation, you are meant to read into it that they are THE authority, and because it’s such a mind field out there (which it is mind you), you’d better contact them and sign up right away!

I’m not saying that most coaches don’t care about their clients, I assume that they do (I consider most of mine friends and keep in touch with and hang out with them well after they don’t need me in the drivers seat), but it’s become a real thing the last several years for people to bash others (subtly of course… Anyone else giving you advice is “dangerous!”) as a means of putting themselves in a better light.

S

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The online coaching thing is a serious niche market, and its one that people don’t realize requires some dedication on their part. Over time, my new client questionnaire has grown considerably, and even has a big bold disclaimer about how I can’t do my job if you don’t do yours (check ins, updates, actually following the plan and doing the work…).

I will say that having such an in depth form to fill out does weed out a good number of people that would have wasted my time other wise. Sure plenty of people will just smile, be happy they got paid, and not give the clients to just flake off and disappear a second thought, but understanding how amazing it is when people take control over how they look, whether it’s serious competition of just looking good for a class reunion is pretty damn rewarding.

uh,… are we off topic? -lol

S

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On the 3x10 comment. The very first guy I asked for training advice in high school said: “everyone else is doing 3 sets of 10. So I do 4 sets of 10. Works for me.”

Gold.

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Yeah, ain’t it interesting that’s what every damn bodybuilder does all or nearly all the time: 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps? Clay Hyght said when in doubt, do 3 sets of 8-10 reps.

How did Jay Cutler train? That exact way!

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Do ya think Rich Piano and Kali Hustle don’t enjoy all that attention and theatrics?

There’s a guy here (don’t remember who) that said something like “bodybuilding is getting stronger in the 6-12 rep range”

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Based on various footage that I’ve seen from other people’s POVs, Rich Piana, in particular, just seems annoyed/distracted when people come up to him at the the gym. And he always seems to be on his cell phone. I’m sure he edits that out of his own videos …so…to answer your question (even though it wasn’t my own question), no, I don’t think they necessarily enjoy the attention anymore. The money, yes; the attention, no.

I’ve known people that work in gyms who never get their own training in because people view them as staff 24/7 and always presume it’s okay to walk over and interrupt them in the middle of a set of something they’re doing.

One of my clients is a trainer at one gym, but does his own training at another, where no one knows him. There is sometimes something good about anonymity.

Of course YT “celeries” asked for the attention, and in most cases it’s not because of their world class physiques, so let 'em have it -lol.

(Or they could just never actually train like Blaha has been doing, because seeing him in person would ruin the reputation built on lies about his former model/world clasd 250 lbs, 3% bf bodybuilder physique)

S

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Everyone I know that met Rich said he’s a nice guy and spends time talking to everyone

I have to say that I never thought I’d be giving him props, but Blaha has on occasion been one of few to provide interesting content on youtube.

Is he out of shape? yep.
Is he a compulsive liar? probably.
Does he claim to invent things that were already there? you betcha
Can he come across as creepy at times? ya

Of course the list goes on and on - I will give him this though, he sometimes manages to come up with a string of interesting topics, citing studies and giving his 2 cents on them.

Bodybuilding isn’t all that complicated and it has proven to be a difficult task for a lot of guys to come up with new material each day in order to stay relevant. I never really cared for Jason, but surprisingly he has done a pretty good job holding my interest from time to time.

Putting his creepy bullshit and other issues aside for a moment - he pretty much states that muscle is built with hormones, protein and heavy weight in progressive fashion… who would argue with that? = )

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BINGO

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Not sure it counts as it’s not strictly BB related, but my pet peeve is people saying they are powerlifters but never competing or BBers and never stepping on stage. I really and truly don’t care what anyone does in the gym, but I do get quite irritated when someone claims to be something they very, very clearly are not. Powerlifting and bodybuilding are competitive disciplines. If you don’t compete, you don’t get to call yourself a competitor.

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That’s an interesting take, and I can see where you’re coming from with powerlifting to a point… I mean if someone can pull a record winning weight then why not do it at a meet?

Bodybuilding can be different though… I’ve known guys who would have smoked the shit out of most line ups if it wasn’t for one genetic short fall or another, so they didn’t bother competing since they would ultimately reach a level where the weak point would hold them back. They were better than most competitors in every other way, including conditioning from time to time, and to see them training in the gym next to a competitor sometimes put the competitor to shame ; )

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I sort of get what you mean, but for me there’s a massive difference between being in with a shot to win and being a competitor. You’ve got to compete to call yourself a competitor. You don’t have to win, but you should at least be doing your best to achieve the most you can if you want to call yourself a PLer/BBer/any kind of competitor.

I’m not sure I agree with this. So if I were to powerlift as a hobby but not compete, what am I supposed to call it?

Isn’t it just a catch-all term for people who want to increase their 1RM in certain lifts?

Strength training, being awesome, that kind of thing. Powerlifting is a sport, with rules and judges. You can be a strong as shit, lean and jacked specimen of awesomeness for whom I’ll have total respect but unless you actually don the soft suit and step on a judged platform you aren’t a PLer.

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I spent years training how to box. Really enjoyed it, followed the sport, wanted to get super good at it. Never once called myself a boxer, because I never actually fought a match.

It’s just part of respecting the sport to me. The athletes that actually risk themselves get the credit, and it means less chance to misrepresent it. Hell, I competed in 3 powerlifting meets and don’t refer to myself as a powerlifter since I haven’t competed in a meet since 2012.

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