Muscle mags .. anyone read them ?

giantfan43 · 02-25-2003, 04:29 PM

I think I've seen this question somewhere so feel free to ignore me if you like ...

But I admit, I'm a magazine junky .. I read everything I can get my hands on .. used to be sports illustrated, espn mag, the old SPORT mag .. now its the muscle mags .. yea, I know that alot of it is sales pitches and juiced up guys sharing there workouts but to me, they are very motivational and a part of why I have become addicted to this sport in the past year ... my wife laughs at me for reading them although she understands .. my kids like to look at the pictures although my oldest son (14 .. who lives with his mother), tells me the guys in there are gross looking .. in most cases, I agree ...

I will admit that I read them all ... I used to like FLEX but that's just pictures now ... Still read it though .. muscle and fitness annoys me so I stopped with that one .. I like MuscleMag but too tied to muscletech .. Ironman can sometimes have a good article or two but sometimes the articles themselves are just ads too ! .. I picked up a copy of MuscleMedia yesterday at the airport and read that on the plane .. that wasn't bad ..

SO, I was just wondering if anyone else read them or do you all save your money for the supps !

MiloMan · 02-25-2003, 05:11 PM

You might find this thread interesting:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...light=magazine

Eye2_Man · 02-25-2003, 05:23 PM

No magazines or newspapers allowed in this house. Everything is digital.

edster951 · 02-26-2003, 01:18 AM

nope, full of crap.

get all the info I need here and on bb.com

Laurie · 02-26-2003, 01:56 AM

When I first started "Women's Strength lifting" (college classes) six months ago, I did buy several but soon learned they all say about the same thing.....When not trying to sell you something. A few I still pick up if there are a few worthy articles. But not often.

But having a computer, means most of the better info can be found in sites like "Bodybuilding.com" or places like "Krista Smash".

bb5-0 · 02-26-2003, 07:53 AM

I used to read a lot of them as this was my main source of information on nutrition and exercises, but since I've had my internet connection, I tend to neglect them. From time to time I find some useful info or some new theory about training, but most of the magazines are now too much linked with supplements companies, or trying to make you believe you can be like the pros just by eating some proteins .
I think reading articles and posts on forums like bb.com is far more interesting as we can profit by the trials and mistakes of other people and exchange ideas on nutrition and techniques with average people like you and I. Some magazines however are trying to get more serious , but you can find all that and more on your computer- just do a little search !

Hibiscus09 · 02-26-2003, 08:48 AM

I like reading my husband's "Men's Health" magazine. It's kind of funny reading what men think women are thinking.

I also like to read Jimmy the Barender's advice to all the dummies.

My husband, on the other hand, liked the recent swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated (he prefers the women that have behinds to the totally thin) and occasionally likes to look at my Victoria's Secret catalogs.

MagicMel · 02-26-2003, 09:25 AM

I tend to be a magazine junky when I first get into a new hobby, or if it's something that I haven't done in a long time and just want to see what's new. As far as muscle mags though, the ads are too overwhelming. Especially Muscle & Fitness. If an article is on page 15 and continued on page 63, it usually takes me a good couple of minutes flipping through all the ads, which have no page numbers, just to find page 63! Sheesh. Muscle Media is the only one I subscribe to now. And this site is where most of the training and diet tips come from.

Hib,
So your hubby only "occasionally" looks at your VS catalog? Yeah, right. My wife always know when I HAVEN'T looked at it because the pages are still stuck together and there aren't any sweaty fingerprints on the lingerie & undies pages.

phikappa · 02-26-2003, 03:46 PM

I will occassionally read some mags, but most are just crapola (IMHO). When you have to say something new each month, you quickly run out of things to say. That's why mags often repeat themselves. I mean really, how much is there to say on the fitness topic? Eat well, excercise consistently, excercise vigorously and excercise briefly. That will cover 95% of it! Maybe I should go into the magazine business! I truely missed my calling.

One thing that they all do is have articles on your lagging bi's/tri's/shoulders/lats etc. Then they'll say to do 4 sets each of these 8 different exercises and voila!, your lagging muscle groups will be on par with the rest of your body. Whatever.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Macattack · 02-26-2003, 05:21 PM

last mag i bought half the pages were advertisements i ripped them out and was left with a thin flimsy few pages of rubbish, JMO

wspe · 02-26-2003, 05:35 PM

bb.com....
PL USA

back2it · 02-26-2003, 05:48 PM

It's the same stuff I was reading 20 years ago just with more glitz and of course "the latest scientific study" . Very few of the mags have anything useful they seem more intersted in signing the next advertizing contract by promoting some supplement than they do in providing real info . I bought 1 mag since nov 02 because it has a "feature" article in it that turned out to be an add . I'll glance it over before I pay for it next time .

GLAlexander · 02-26-2003, 06:02 PM

A couple of web sites that have a lot of information.

www.cyberpump.com (informal home of HIT, but lot's of interesting stuff there)

www.hardgainer.com (Hardgainer round table is a good forum, but it is very technical in nature.) At least I think it is technical since I can't explain anything they are talking about.

Viola · 02-26-2003, 06:44 PM

In the beginning I bought different ones. Then I realized I was either ready the same things or large contradictions. I realized that for me it was a waste of money.

Viola

MiloMan · 02-26-2003, 09:47 PM

Actually, MILO is a really good magazine (but it's a PL/Strongman mag, not a BB mag).

giantfan43 · 02-27-2003, 06:58 AM

Interesting hearing everyones view .. I don't discount the fact that they are crap .. believe me .. but, I am a mag junky .. always been that way .. back about 20 years ago or so, I was into golf big time .. used to read every magazine on the rack every month .. even though they said the same thing over and over .. so, I admit, I waste my money and I agree, much better info found on the web ..

Minotaur · 02-27-2003, 09:59 AM

I used to read a few of them, especially M&F, Exercise for Men Only, and Men's Health.

In the beginning I was really naive about the use of steroids by the IFBB pros. I swore up and down that they were natural (well, then what did someone look like who used?).

But the problem is that the magazine articles get repetitive. After about a year, the cycle of articles starts again. I'd think to myself, "hey, didn't I read about this before!?" Not to mention all the supplement advertisements.

Now the only time I pick up one of the magazines is if it looks like there is something spectacularly interesting in it.

sledgehammer956 · 02-27-2003, 04:41 PM

I just received a years subscription to "Men's Health" from my niece. I actually think it's a pretty good mag and my 70 year old father actually started lifting weights at my home gym after reading some of the articles. He even posted some of the workout charts up on my walls for him to follow.

Ricky · 03-25-2003, 11:13 AM

I read those magazines at Barnes and Noble. Most are pretty misleading.

I have an article I'd like to post from an old Musclemag when I get home. It was actually pretty interesting.

But I agree how many times can you rehash ways to train different body parts.

Most of the programs require way too many sets anyways.

Cyberpump was cool until they started charging.

Lou3 · 03-30-2003, 08:28 AM

I bought some magazines when I first got into bodybuilding, but after the first four or five issues I felt like I'd seen it all. Even when they bring out the latest sure-fire training approach from some eastern European country or wherever, it's the same hype -- usually connected to a supplement they're pushing -- followed by the same fizzle.

When I need information, I go to my bodybuilding encyclopedia or bodybuilding.com. They always have several approaches for me to try, and they're already paid for.

maxallen · 03-30-2003, 12:25 PM

I like the articles in Men's Health and Men's Fitness. The rest of them are only good for motivational pictures . I mean how many times do you really need to read an article about how to do a biceps workout, complete with a "start position" and "end position" picture of how to do a concentration curl? It's all about bodybuilders getting themselves some publicity and pictures in print (plus, of course, those supplement ads).

MiloMan · 03-30-2003, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lou3
Even when they bring out the latest sure-fire training approach from some eastern European country or wherever, it's the same hype -- usually connected to a supplement they're pushing -- followed by the same fizzle.

Haha, that's exactly right! Give it a foreign flavor, and the suckers will line up at your door.

No one cared about lifting big teapots, until they renamed them "kettlebells" and (falsely) claimed that they were used in Russian Military Training. I sometimes work with a man who was in the Soviet army for 14 years (then emigrated here after the Sovs crumbled), and he had never heard of "kettlebells".

That reminds me of the anecdote about Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu's bricklaying business ("Pumping Bricks") in Santa Monica (back in theor early days in the USA). Competition was fierce, but they hit upon the idea of exploiting their immigration, subtitling their business with a title something like "Pumping Bricks - Traditional European Bricklayers" - and raising their prices. As a result, a lot of people somehow assumed that they were better than the cheap, American bricklayers, and flocked to this hot, new Euro firm.

Many people will run like sheep, cash in hand, after anything that promises to be better/easier than hard work and eating right. That's why all these diet books sell millions of copies. Common sense tells a person "Eat fewer alories than you burn and be active to lose fat", but nooooo, that's not complicated enough! A diet can't possibly work if it doesn't mandate hair-splitting micromanagement of this and that down to the microgram!

WarriorPoet · 04-01-2003, 06:13 AM

Maybe once in a while for comic relief.

BOLDERNECK · 03-01-2008, 07:51 PM

as long as i have this needle in my ass i will look like those guys.....im like you...motivation

eddied27 · 03-01-2008, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BOLDERNECK

as long as i have this needle in my ass i will look like those guys.....im like you...motivation

Second multi-year bump I've come across today! Love these!

Nice!

gympunk · 03-01-2008, 07:56 PM

FLEX: Those guys are always so ripped & huge I figure either : A) I really wouldn't want to look like that or B) I'll never take all the chemicals they will to get that big...Then some of the other "workout" type mags seem like they're targeting the gay market...

Reality_Check · 03-01-2008, 09:10 PM

Everything I consider worth knowing about body building can be written down in about 3 pages (maybe several more). I am therefor eternally amazed by the ability of magaznes to turn out hundreds of new pages on body building week after week, year after year.

In order to make several pages worth of information stretch to cover several thousand, I think you would need to use a lot of filler and also invent BS just to have something new to say but mainly just find different ways of dressing up old information as new information, and indeed thats what I see magazines and for that matter articles on this site doing (its also why I don't mind OT posts - otherwise the endless train of questions that have already been covered several times over might send me bonkers, if I'm not already).

TechLady · 03-01-2008, 09:16 PM

Muscle Media 2000 ftw

otherwise an occasional M&F read here n' there, but mostly internet browsing these days

createenjock · 03-02-2008, 12:13 PM

My gf thinks muscles mags "are gay"!! Muscle & Fitness is OK. the internet is better.

SYNBAD · 03-02-2008, 05:52 PM

Long answer:
I use to buy these back in the day and would worship what I read. My friend and I would do the w/o the pro's posted and finally after a few years of killing ourselves all the roid info started hitting the news and the freaks started to get bigger and we realized theres no way we will put that crap in our bodies. So I quit buying them and started researching natural BB to find the safe ways to get big.

Short answer: no