You Must Train Like Them
For many years I’ve read the bodybuilder magazines religiously. I tried workout after workout, trying to achieve the body of a professional bodybuilder. Unfortunately, I did not realize that bodybuilding was a sport. And like all other sports, the athletes are not like you or I.
For example, let’s look at a sport like basketball. I can learn to play basketball. I can pay for private coaches; train exactly like Michael Jordan; eat exactly what he eats, do exactly what he does… Sure I will get decent at the game, but I will never be as good as Michael Jordan. 99.9% of us won’t. Heck I won’t even be goon enough to play professionally. This is because Michael Jordan, like other professional athletes have the genetics to help them excel in that sport.
The same goes for bodybuilding. First of all, the bodybuilders in this sport are gifted genetically. Their bodies respond well to resistance training. Even if you train exactly like they do, your body won’t respond like theirs.
Second, most professional bodybuilders are heavy users of steroids and illegal hormones. These drugs give them an edge and help them to recover faster. So they can train more often and build muscle faster than a non-steroid user.
Former professional bodybuilder Craig Titus put it this way:
“What a professional bodybuilder does to build muscle has nothing to do
with what the average person needs to do to build muscle.”
Need I say more?
Now, I’m not telling you this to discourage you from trying to build more muscle. I’m telling you this so that you can begin to focus on the right things. You must forget trying to train like a professional bodybuilder. It won’t work on us normal guys. You must train in a way that is right for your body & genetics.
Of course I still enjoy looking at bodybuilder magazines for inspiration, but that’s as far as it goes. I skip their recommended workouts and suggestions.