Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

SETTING THE SCENE FOR BUILDING MUSCLE AND MIGHT
1.24 During the pre-steroids era, when the-then conventional training advice was
much more useful for typical people than today’s standard gym guidance
is, sky-high goals were not promoted to the masses. en, taking off in the
sixties and accelerating thereafter, the widespread but usually secretive use
of steroids greatly elevated training expectations. is led to increasingly
unrealistic goals being promoted to the masses. (Bodybuilding drugs were
around since before the sixties, but their influence did not really take off
until during the sixties.)
1.25 Nowadays, consider yourself anything other than a hard gainer, and you are
almost certainly not going to train according to your ability to respond to
exercise. You will be swallowed up by popular routines and advice. You will
be consumed by despair as you invest so much for so little return. You will
be easy prey for being ripped off by charlatans, especially those who accuse
hard gainers of being whiners and underachievers. ese charlatans are the
same individuals whose models of people who “overcame” genetic shortcomings
are usually pumped to the jowls with steroids, but who never mention
the contributions that drugs made.
1.26 Unless you see through all the fraud you will become another training failure
and possibly take the drug route because conventional training methods do
not work for typical hard gainers. Today’s well-intentioned or, in some cases,
the unscrupulous “forget about genetics” and “you can do it too” mentality
fuels training failure, supports the ripping off of the masses, and encourages
drug abuse. As soon as anyone plays down genetics and drugs, you should
hear alarm bells ringing.
1.27 Understanding that you are a hard gainer frees you from distorted aspirations,
absurd training routines, and a life of obsessive ruin. It makes you
cautious, skeptical and discriminating, thus sparing you from being misled
by those who promise far more than they can ever deliver.
Hard gainer creation
1.28 Conventional training advice creates permanent hard gainers, and shackles
them in stagnation and frustration. Because the conventional advice works
for so few people, it makes most people believe that getting bigger and stronger
is much more difficult than it is, impossible even.
1.29 e instruction in BEYOND BRAWN is primarily aimed at people who
cannot grow on conventional advice, but the irony is that by following the
25