i think the big issue sassy is no one wants to actually train. I see guys trying to curl 70lb dbs but no one wants to go through the pain of reaching failure. I think normal gym guys will maybe hit true failure on 2 sets the entire workout. My goal is to hit failure EVERY set, then hit partials to failure. it is the most painful way of training i have ever tried but my growth is amazing. If you watch guys like john meadows or shelby starnes they do tons of partial reps after failure. Just try to force as much blood to that muscle as possible then the next set your goal is to match or beat the last set.
I always catch myself starting to sound like my parents - "Kids these days ... nobody wants to work and expect everything handed to them on a platter..." - but relative to the glory days of BB, before it started pushing the real extremes (when do you define the "real extremes" in this sport??? -- I'd say when the gut started showing up is when things got beyond sloppy and it was still considered acceptable), times were truly different:
- BBs were "different" and Arnold established the "glamor" of it w/ some of the more aesthetic standouts like Frank Zane, Robby Robbinson, Ed Corney, etc) - so it became "cool" thru the 90s. Anyone remember the Zubasz shitters, Otomix hightops and a string tanktop w/ a flat top hairdo look? That was actually a look & a lifestyle that people adapted enough to make the clothes brands immediately recognizable - like Tapout, etc. are associated with MMA and have since gone mainstream to not cool anymore.
- The drugs are more accessible w/ the internet.
- The designer drugs are more accessible w/ the internet.
- There's more history of the BB era and the evolution of the sport thru the 90s than there was in the 60s-70s
Mostly I think that old school hardcore mystique is gone and its been complicated w/ more drugs, tolerance (more willingness to use greater amounts) for greater extremes and aspiration to get "even bigger". So its like the look is there but all the stuff that went into establishing that look is gone. Now its more of a facade than a lifestyle.
Not that I represent a pro-level BB, but I did start lifting decades ago and have seen the change just within the gym - I hired my first true training coach (i.e. not just a guy selling time on the new Nautilus machines) in ugh.... the late 80s, and he was the one who told me you judge a good leg day on whether or not you puked. I came very close to heaving many times under this guy. Leg day usually started with identifying the location of all the nearest trash cans in the gym. I trained like that up to my last show until I started having some age-related issues. I know some guys who train like that but they are less than the guys who go into the gym to curl in the squat rack and then go do some crossfit stuff.
I guess no offense to the crossfit folks, but times are changing, what is popular is changing, so you don't find much of that culture anymore but people are still leveraging the tools & tricks that have developed over the years to support that culture. And the sad part is that you just can't argue w/ "time spent". I've got 30 yrs of muscle maturity, I've been spotty as shit w/ my training the last 3 years and the only real size I've lost is in my quads - and those were the muscle group I had to work the hardest to develop. The rest is pretty much still there despite approaching menopause and being a weekend warrior at best for 3 years.
And that's my travelogue thru the years.
