Films have the power to alter people’s perception of reality. Many of the values and beliefs that we have accepted for granted are a direct result of strong propaganda originating from the entertainment industry. I often catch myself using phrases from popular sitcoms. Sometimes I do that even when I am alone and talking to […]
Criticizing the grotesque and distended guts of professional bodybuilders has become the norm. I did so myself in a couple of posts last year. I still believe that looking like you are about to give birth to an alien is by no means a pretty sight, especially when you are trying to be a visual example of how […]
Over the last few weeks, I have been visiting an old gym close to work. I used to go there two or three years ago. On the third day of my return, I saw a guy who used to teach me how to do Scott curls. He was one of those naturals with a decently […]
Before nattyornot.com I had another website dedicated to lifting. When I told one of my friends from high school about it, he said: “Aren’t you ashamed that you look so skinny and yet you have a site about lifting?” I was indeed skinny, but I wasn’t selling people the secret to exceptional muscle growth. My […]
One of the telltale signs of drug abuse among bodybuilders and fitness models would be the ultra-thin skin. To understand what I mean by that pinch the skin at the back of your hand. It will be very thin even if you are obese. Many steroids users have skin that thin all over their bodies. […]
The Russian Bear protocol is a relatively popular hypertrophy routine designed by Pavel Tsatsouline. It requires you to perform only 2 exercises. In the original program, the movements of choice are the deadlift and the overhead press. The first major flaw of this routine is the high deadlift volume. I’ve heard of people doing deadlifts for […]
One of the many dogmas that the functional training community has installed in our brains is that lifting straps are pure evil and only low-life moronic wannabe bodybuilders use them. This is one of the reasons why people are afraid to rely on straps for exercises like the deadlift. FOREARMS vs. HIPS & BACK Your forearm […]
According to my observations, the muscle groups with long muscle bellies and short tendons grow the fastest when trained frequently and intensely. Those, however, vary for different people. As I wrote in the article about calves, some lifters will never develop that muscle group to something impressive regardless of training, food intake or drug use because […]
Right after my permabulking period, I jumped on the bodybuilding train which I had previously ridiculed consistently. You have to remember that I am a child of the functional training community. They told me that high reps are for morons and little bitches afraid to train like real men. The Internet introduced me to Dorian Yates’s […]
One of the first observations I made when I joined a gym was that on chest days many muscle constructors do all three bench press variations – flat for the ego, incline for the upper chest and decline for the lower chest. I thought that those guys were total idiots who didn’t know how to train. […]
Yesterday I watched a video meant to explain why modern natural bodybuilders are breaking the size limits. The idea was that there are people with incredibly good genetics who can build an enormous amount of muscle mass compared to the rest. The maker of the clip is the popular bodybuilder Marc Lobliner. He used the following example […]
As most ectomorphs, I have calf muscles with extremely high insertions (long Achilles tendons). As a result, my lower legs and ankles have always been skinny looking. Naturally, my awareness of this fact increased when I joined the muscle game. Sadly, high calves just can’t grow in the cases I have observed. There’s overwhelming evidence suggesting […]