This is probably the biggest thing going down in the online performance nutrition community. Two highly respected guys (Aragon and Lyle McDonald) are calling T-Nation/Biotest on their bullshit claims. The article is informative, but the comments turned out to be more interesting.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...4#comment-3353
by Alan Aragon
Bold claims vs. realistic expectations
A T-nation article was recently brought to my attention by a flood of emails. Folks expressed everything from awe to outrage, but the biggest sentiment was disbelief. "I, Bodybuilder" is in the form of a conversation between staff writer Nate Green and the owner of Biotest, Tim Patterson. It's a prelude to the formal release of an upcoming supplement called Anaconda.
Is the article unintentionally humorous to discerning minds? Yes. Is any of it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? Probably not. Does it read like one big, hairy advertisement? Yes. However, to the majority of the T-nation forum members, it probably reads like the Second Coming of the Lord.
To quote the video on the article's opening page, the product/protocol was "developed out of a black-ops bodybuilding project" where the user can experience "muscle mass being built as fast as humanly possible."
This hyped-up marketing script is business as usual. But, make no mistake about it; a lot of kids are going to be staking their entire sense of self-worth on the effectiveness of the magic bullet. Here are the claims made in the video on the article's opening page as well as in print on the 3rd page:
* Christian Thibaudeau gained 27 lbs of muscle in 6 weeks and increased seated overhead press to 375 pounds for 5 cluster reps.
* Sebastien Cossette gained 20 lbs of muscle in 8 weeks and added 100 lbs to his front squat.
....
Another research example of drug-assisted gains is a year-long case study by Alén and Häkkinen, who examined the stats and details of an elite bodybuilder [3]. During the course of a year, his fat-free mass increased from 83 to 90 kg (182.6 to 198 lb), which is a gain of 15.4 lb. He used anabolic/androgenic drugs throughout the study, with the exception of 4 weeks off in the middle of the 12 month period.
So, if 15.4 lbs of lean mass in a year is all this genetically gifted, drug-enhanced, international-level bodybuilder can muster, what makes the genetically average, drug-free, non-newbie, non-rebounding trainee think he can exceed that in less than 4 months? Only the Biotest staff knows the secret.
....
The real story here is that T-Nation is (again) deleting comments critical of their product and manipulating the posts to make it appear as if they're not a bunch of scam-artists/fascists. The discourse at T-Nation in that thread is mind-numbingly stupid. Here it is: http://tnation.tmuscle.com/free_onli...74557&pageNo=0
Here's a nice little breakdown of the whole controversy:
http://www.ampedtraining.com/knowled...al-tmen-speak/
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...4#comment-3353
Quote:
Supplement Marketing on Steroidsby Alan Aragon
Bold claims vs. realistic expectations
A T-nation article was recently brought to my attention by a flood of emails. Folks expressed everything from awe to outrage, but the biggest sentiment was disbelief. "I, Bodybuilder" is in the form of a conversation between staff writer Nate Green and the owner of Biotest, Tim Patterson. It's a prelude to the formal release of an upcoming supplement called Anaconda.
Is the article unintentionally humorous to discerning minds? Yes. Is any of it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? Probably not. Does it read like one big, hairy advertisement? Yes. However, to the majority of the T-nation forum members, it probably reads like the Second Coming of the Lord.
To quote the video on the article's opening page, the product/protocol was "developed out of a black-ops bodybuilding project" where the user can experience "muscle mass being built as fast as humanly possible."
This hyped-up marketing script is business as usual. But, make no mistake about it; a lot of kids are going to be staking their entire sense of self-worth on the effectiveness of the magic bullet. Here are the claims made in the video on the article's opening page as well as in print on the 3rd page:
* Christian Thibaudeau gained 27 lbs of muscle in 6 weeks and increased seated overhead press to 375 pounds for 5 cluster reps.
* Sebastien Cossette gained 20 lbs of muscle in 8 weeks and added 100 lbs to his front squat.
....
Another research example of drug-assisted gains is a year-long case study by Alén and Häkkinen, who examined the stats and details of an elite bodybuilder [3]. During the course of a year, his fat-free mass increased from 83 to 90 kg (182.6 to 198 lb), which is a gain of 15.4 lb. He used anabolic/androgenic drugs throughout the study, with the exception of 4 weeks off in the middle of the 12 month period.
So, if 15.4 lbs of lean mass in a year is all this genetically gifted, drug-enhanced, international-level bodybuilder can muster, what makes the genetically average, drug-free, non-newbie, non-rebounding trainee think he can exceed that in less than 4 months? Only the Biotest staff knows the secret.
....
The real story here is that T-Nation is (again) deleting comments critical of their product and manipulating the posts to make it appear as if they're not a bunch of scam-artists/fascists. The discourse at T-Nation in that thread is mind-numbingly stupid. Here it is: http://tnation.tmuscle.com/free_onli...74557&pageNo=0
Here's a nice little breakdown of the whole controversy:
http://www.ampedtraining.com/knowled...al-tmen-speak/
He's pretty open to debate. You should go for it. You nail his ass to the wall and the next thing you know you're writing for tmag and interweb guru riches are yours. lefty turbozed beat me to it.
