The online realm is filled with pretentious mini-clips from podcasts constantly saying that bodybuilders can’t fight and will be destroyed by <insert an MMA name here> in an instant.
It’s probably true.
Yet bodybuilding remains the ULTIMATE self-defense martial on the planet.
It’s better than MMA, Kung Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Taekwondo…etc.
“How so? How is it better if bodybuilders can’t fight? We still remember that old clip of Rich Piana,” asks the dreamer.
It’s extremely simple.
The purpose of self-defense is protection.
And the best protection is non-participation/avoidance.
Bodybuilding does exactly that.
It’s all about perception.
Imagine the following situation. You need money, desperately. Your only option is to rob someone on the street.
There are two men in your radius. One is a 135-pound boxer with poor posture and a cut lip.
The other is a 220lbs steroid-loaded bodybuilder with male pattern baldness and a massive bicep vein that would hypnotize you if you look at it for more than 10 seconds.
Who are you going to attack?
Get real.
I know that many people (usually reddit professors) will start weird rationalizations right now, but the truth is:
You’re going to attack the smaller guy.
The bodybuilder will remain protected precisely because he is large.
Therefore, bodybuilding a.k.a. the art of putting massive amounts of test in your body for the sake of bribing your mitochondria (or whatever it was called) to synthesize more protein WORKS better than trying to break your fists by hitting a heavy bag.
What do the martial arts professors always say on TV?
“I hope I never have to use my skills in real life. ”
“I always try to avoid conflict.”
Well, if you want to avoid conflict maybe you should stop looking like someone who has been skipping dinner since 1990 and start tr-e-n-n-i-n-g harder. (just kidding, kinda)
Bodybuilding does exactly that.
It transforms you from a target into the OAK that no one would ever bring an ax to.
“But the boxer will destroy the attacker,” says the dreamer.
Good. Let’s return to the story.
Even if the boxer destroys the attacker, the vulnerable situation is already a fact.
Nothing is as safe as nothing.
And bodybuilding gives you exactly that – nothing.
The shaved muscle head will continue walking to the gym while the boxer is under attack that could change his life forever. Even if the boxer destroys his opponent he is risking damage.
Below are a few possibilities:
- The boxer could break his wrist/hand. (Without gloves that’s a real possibility).
- The boxer could cause lethal damage. The consequences here are very bad for both sides.
- The attacker could get agitated and use a weapon. Let’s see you boxing against a knife, a gun, or a Harley Davidson chain.
“But what if we are in a boxing ring,” continues the dreamer.
First, who is going to put you in a boxing ring by force?
Second, why would a bodybuilder accept to fight under conditions that favor only one party?
Can’t you switch the ring for a phone booth?
Third, professional and amateur fighting in a ring is not part of the self-defense program. It has the opposite effect a.k.a. self-destruction.
And by the way, when you push aside boxing, MMA, and similar martial arts, things get even more laughable.
It’s should be obvious that all martial arts that teach you how to make dragons with your hands (e.g., Wing Chun…etc.) are a complete waste of time (unless the teacher is hot and let’s face it – he/she probably isn’t.)
Massive arms and a pumped chest do more for your protection than touching wooden dummies for no good reason. (that’s a fact).
“But bodybuilders are all show and go,” continues the dreamer.
It’s about time you start listening. I already told you – it’s all about perception.
When you see a guy in a nice suit with a blinking watch, you immediately conclude that he has money and is probably working a well-paid job.
Now, when you see someone dressed in tennis clothes that haven’t been in a washing machine since November 17, 2012, what do you think? A poor loser.
The second guy could be the creator of a famous social media and storing billions in a bunker while the first guy is a wannabe who has a hard time paying his car payments.
“But martial arts teach you how to be a calm philosopher. They help your discipline too,” continues the dreamer.
Who cares?
Last time I checked “martial art philosophy” and discipline can’t protect you from a fist.
And to be honest, the vast majority of philosophy is just theoretical mental gymnastics.
Second, bodybuilders have more discipline as the activity is 24/7.
Bodybuilders have to be persistent with three things:
- Injecting
- Eating
- Training
(the order is not random)
Following a strict steroid cycle requires more IQ and discipline than skipping rope a couple of times a week.
Eating like a robot is a mental, lunatic activity that bodybuilders have to do.
Training…well… this is just too easy…but it has to be done too.
“But bodybuilders don’t know how to take a punch. They’ve never been hit. “
Neither have most people doing martial arts.
Most martial arts training is designed to generate money for the studio/owner/club rather than to produce some mean killing machines.
Hence most commercial gyms don’t even do real sparing but dance with gloves and throw medicine balls instead.
But even if they did, people are not going to hit you as hard as they can for obvious reasons whereas an attacker may do it….for obvious reasons.
Second, no training can turn your body into Chromoly steel. Even if you’re trained well, a hit is a hit.
P.S. In 2014, NattOrNot.com celebrated its 10th birthday.
It’s kinda crazy to think about it, but it is what it is.
This was the FIRST site dedicated to exposing fake natties. Many people copied it. I was also offered money for the site a couple of times but refused. It’s still NattyOrNot.com. I am still TruthSeeker. Older, and maybe sadder, but still me.
The articles have been an inspiration to many and translated into multiple languages.
I would like to thank you for supporting me for a decade.
Currently, the books are on sale, but you probably already know that from the large banner at the top.
Thank you.
Let’s see what happens in the next 10 years.
🙂
I had discovered your site 10 years ago. Always a pleasure to visita it. I read one of your books, the one with Riki piano, i found it very entretaining.
I wish you all the Best
I remember very well that you’ve been here from the start.
Thank your for 10 years of full support.
One time I was playing basketball with my friends and there are some malnourished ghetto dudes playing football in the basketball court. In that court some arguments and small fights had happened between basketball players and football players. I clearly observed with my peripheral vision that one of the guys checking my body and hesitating to talk trash but they talk trash to the smaller dudes in the court. So the bodybuilding works for avoiding fights. Additionally, Thanks for saving me from countless OCD’s in this muscle building journey. I am a big follower of you since your irongangsta blog. I remember that you had another site but I cannot remember the name of it now. Wish for you the best!
Thank you for supporting me since the start. IronGangsta was the seed of NattyorNot.com .
I bought one of your books a long time ago. I love your style of writing. I even read the book twice.
Thank you for the support!
Same I’ve been reading your articles since iron gangsta .
Thank you for the support, bro.
Irongangsta -> therookiejournal -> nattyornot
Rookie > Gangsta > Natty
Damn, 10-year birthday already. Man, I don’t really even know where to begin from, and I’m sorry that I’m going to ramble a lot. Quite frankly, I don’t even remember where this got started for me in the first place . I guess I stumbled on this site years and years ago (and you old sites) while I was looking for answers to the effects of steroids usage in strength training. Anyway, I was hooked pretty much from the get go. Funnily enough, although I initially came to read about strength training and fitness and PEDs, I stayed because of the other topics and because of the great writer.
I’ve said this before, and I stick by it, TS, to me you are the Bukowski of the fitness industry. Although the whole statement is stupid, because it is impossible to see old Buko doing much fitness related activities. But your writing style is spot on great, straight to the point and added with great humour, just like Buko. I’ve had such a great time with your writings, many of them I’ve read several times, and I have a few that I read every and now and then, for example these:
https://nattyornot.com/how-to-maintain-your-natural-bodybuilding-gains-with-ultra-minimal-effort/
https://nattyornot.com/the-art-of-training-as-little-as-possible-solid-gains-minimal-effort/
Ironically, when I started to read your stuff, I was still thinking that I would be able to look like Sly or Arnold just by “eating clean, training hard and by never giving up”. Oh yeah, and it’s also important to test your limit. You shoved me the way to really make it, either by using Clen, Tren and Anavar in the afore mentioned statement, or by accepting the natural laws. At the time I was also always looking up for the latest and greatest ideas and programs to get the best out of my training. I can’t even imagine how much time and effort I wasted on my training during all those years. And of course, I always felt inadequate because of the lies of the fitness industry.
Long story short, thank you TS for everything you have done and congratulations on the 10th birthday of NattyOrNot. You really showed me the way, I can now accept my training and the results (or the lack of them) as they are. My training is nowadays super simple:
Day 1: Pullups
Day 2: Dips and / or puhsups
Day 3: Bulgarian split squats, calf raises and KB swings
After a cycle, I start a new one and on Sunday I usually rest. This routine is mostly like it is because I train largely for my mental health, and I feel better when I exercise daily. My numbers stay the same, but as the years pass by and I get older, the numbers actually start to look okay. I also stopped bulking completely and cut weight back to a healthy numbers. I’m still a bit vain (once a meathead, always a meathead), so I try to keep a visible four pack going year round. I look a lot better compared to when I was really OCD about all these things.
So yeah, I think I forgot to say a lot of the things I was supposed to say. But anyway, keep up the good stuff TS. Although I’m hoping that you continue writing, I very well understand if you don’t want to do it anymore, or you don’t feel like it at times. And to be true, you have already said so much, that there is a ton to grasp for folks. I’m a bit older than you, and thus probably a bit sadder, but I still hope only good things to you, happiness, health, wealth and love (if it exists). In a nutshell, those are the things your writings have given me. You deserve the best!
P.S. Whatever you publish, I will get no matter how poor I am 🙂
THANK you for the massive support, Sam.
There is no nattyornot.com without loyal readers.
Nice work getting to 10 years I’ve been enjoying the posts for a long time now, they’re very entertaining and cut through some deep truths relating to the whole muscle building industry.
Things have changed in the last ten years for sure. So it’s mad looking back to 2014 even in my own life, but more so in 2004 YouTube didn’t exist, in 2014 nobody was really exposing fake natties until you came onto the scene. Refreshing content.
Definitely a lot of truth to bodybuilding being the best martial art, the scenarios depicted by reddit and youtube losers are fucking retarded. Funny that they always compare a completely untrained (in martial arts, boxing etc.) bodybuilder to a professional UFC fighter and make the comparison. Completely ridiculous scenarios.
What is more likely is that most people training in “martial arts” are just as useless as the average man is at bodybuilding. Take some average little dojo fag with a couple of years training to fight someone 100lbs heavier and see how things work out.
I worked with a guy a few years back a proper bodybuilder who’d done some time inside and was open about the roids he took. He said to me he’d never learned to fight but with the strength and size he’s got nobody said shit to him in prison. He said he could “throw a punch” if needed and could bench 160kg for reps. He tren’d hard.
Keep seeking the truth.
Thank you for the support, Diana Bowl ;0
Hi truth seeker. Congratulations for the tenth birthday of this site. I liked this article, however, doesn’t it contradict a previous one called: “weights don’t build confidence, fists are better”? I mean, I agree with you. The best thing to do is to avoid a fight, but I think it is necessary to know how to fight. There is nothing more humilliating that some scumbag attacking if you don’t know how to defend yourself. Also, I agree a big guy is intimidating, but how can natties bodybuilders look big? They look normal in clothes.
Thank you for the support.
I realize that sometimes my articles can have contradictions. It’s mostly because my point of view shifts over time. 10 years is a fairly long period.
Anyway, it’s true that if you don’t know how to fight, your confidence will be naturally lower if you were to enter a fight.
Big muscles don’t build confidence in the context of fighting. They just make you the less likely target. And that protects you the most.
Oh I see! Thank you for your response. I’m a big fan of your writing!
After ten years, what are your points of view regarding religion?
Hi to all,
First, a Big Thank You to you Truth Seeker for this decade of publications that make us reflect on the many illusions in society.
You make us open our eyes to the lucrative lies organized by many, and invite to reflect on ourselves and become better men.
Thank you also for your perfectly constructed text.
However, will all due respect, I have mixed feelings about your arguments, even if I agree with you for most.
I share your opinion on a large proportion of martial arts, combat sports and self-defence practitioners: many of them are nowadays more into a purely physical form of activity, techniques or art, a kind of “fitness karate” or “cardio boxing”, and few are elected for a real fight, especially a fight in the street, i.e. without any rules.
Some “senseï” are nowadays moneydiggers when it is time to recrute new members or students.
Investment in time and sacrifice required to become a real fighter is particularly high and a very difficult journey.
Few people even have the will to endure such hard training year after year.
From this point of view, it’s certain that the average thug will be more inclined to attack the normal guy than the body builder who looks impressive.
However, I can assure you that some high-level practitioners martial artists or combat sports practitioners, even if they don’t look big, exude, when necessary, something threatening that’s not at all in the realm of mere appearance, and if the aggressor follows his instinct or intuition, he won’t attack and will choose another “victim”.
At the same time, given the explosion in urban violence, thugs are not afraid of anything, and they know (notably from certain videos on social networks) that bodybuilders, with a few exceptions, are handicapped in combat by their slowness and heart condition (as their large muscle volume requires a lot of oxygen, they tire very quickly in combat). Thugs can even see it as a challenge to prove to the gang they are fearless or with the help of others thugs and, frequently, a steel blade.
I’ve seen real fighters who dont look massive particularly aggressive in combat and fighters literally dismantle huge opponents twice their weight in muscle, even on the street.
In short, I agree with you, but for all that I think we also need to remember to never judge a book by its cover.
As Mark Twain once said : “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Just my opinion of course.
Best regards and Happy Birthday to Nattyornot.
Thank you for the support, Cavalino. You offered a lot of good points that make the discussion more complete 🙂
Damn… 10 years… I found your website around the time of some of your early articles on Steve Reeves, when they were only just published. It blew my mind for me to finally conclude that he was not natty …
I used to think Arnold was natty – then I learned better.
Then I thought “smaller” WWE wrestlers were natty (e.g. John Morrison, Cody Rhodes etc.) – then I learned better.
Surely guys from the late 40s and 50s were natty though, right? Wrong.
That sucked.
Been passing through regularly ever since.
I think I may have been the guy who reached out to you about “how do we bring the whole bodybuilding system down bro??” that you mentioned in one of your recent articles (actually, I was probably one of many) – I think your response was “I don’t know. I don’t have a formula. If you have something interesting to say, maybe a few people will listen.” Or something similar.
Thanks man – entertaining reading, as always.
Thank you for support, Andrew 🙂
Do I know that the boxer is a boxer? If I know that then, no, I would not choose to attack him even if he’s smaller. Most people probably would, but most people don’t know how fast an experienced fighter will knock your teeth out, either.
This is the best article you’ve ever written in my view, hits all the nails on the head!
Natty Boxer vs strong juicehead, guess who loses. We are too used to roided up fighters. Truth is that strenght alone beats unnamer prowess.
Did you know you that a page with a fag voice have been stealing you content since 2015?
It is called “La verdad sobre el fitness”, a YouTube channel in spanish with the same content as you post here but translated and spooked as a real fag
Yeah. I can’t stop it. I tried talking to them, and to youtube, but no one cares.
been here since 10 years back where you would post regularly, almost daily.
Thank your for 10 years of support!
It is actually not just perception but advanced bodybuilding makes you muscles activated and highly functional. As in.. you actually feel your muscles working and you can manipulate them at will for stronger punches and your whole musculature works as a dynamic leverage to destroy the head of someone. That’s why bigger guys with more muscle punch harder and stronger, they whole musculature is highly trained and has high functionality. This is why they tell you to hit the gym for 6 months to adequately train your biceps to concentratively activate them and actually highly functioning them.
This is why NECK BULK & TRAINING matters. Bulk is a suit of highly durable armour.