Explain all these work out plans to me please...

[Banderivets]

I do not get it...Once in a while I'm at 7/11 buying chewing gum or something and Ill flip through these body building, men's health magazines who every month for year on end have these "best work out plan to date!!!!xtreme!!!!" plans etc...

Now I understand marketing, and the need to make money and to pump out new supplements and this and that...

But do people that actually work out live off this stuff?

I mean it appears rather basic what needs to be done in the gym if you have a goal in mind...

Now I've been going to a gym on regular basis for 3 years now...I mean I always have, but 3 years now I've been going non stop...But I always notice all these "bros" at the gym who obsess over "pumpin iron" and that's all they ever talk about and get nowhere in the end...

Tricep is a tricep and a pec is a pec...There are a few ways that you can work them out, but what is the point of all these endless routines and these "new" workouts that are supposed to revolutionize I do not know what...

-------

The lesson I've learned is that if you want to get big, you have to first of all eat big, and work out big (heavy weights, not too many reps, not too many sets) who gives a **** what sequence you do your work outs in...who cares if you take an extra 30 seconds between your rest periods...Who cares if you do not push out that extra rep....Just LIFT! Lift hard enough that you can still lift the next day, and then lift hard again, and then if you feel the pain, take a day off and go back...And that is how you get big...

All these little things that you read about in some mag are useful. But useful to real athletes, who need that extra .01sec in their run, that extra quarter inch in vertical or who knows what...

But regular Joes, who 90% of the guys at the gym are, do not need any of that ****....Yet they all buy into it, spend tons of money on all that garbage for no reason...They smash three protein shakes a workout, only to piss it out an hour later...

/end rant

[as646]

You have to understand who the target audience of those magazines are. It's essentially the same principles as fad diets: by-and-large, the average person is inherently lazy, so it's in their interest to buy into these brand-new shiny diets, supplements and workout plans that promise great results, fast, and with minimal comittment.

The other reason is down to knowledge. Athletes and bodybuilders will generally ignore things like this because they already know how to construct a good workout, and can recognise these workout plans for what they are. Many gymrats won't really have a clue what they're doing; they might have been working out for years, but they've never actually made any effort to research the makings of a good workout plan.

Hence the reason for all these bros doing curls all day, err' day.

[DIB42]

Obviously its to sell the magazine. I believe the magazine is targeted towards the gym rat and the "fat kid with a dream". Someone who works out 8 hours a day can easily get bored of the same couple exercizes and routines, also when you have that kind of time, you're going to do alot more excersizes targeted at specific muscles that know one has ever heard of. Also to be cool and keep up with your lifting bros, you'll need to know the latest suppliments and the who's who and what's what on the latest and greatest workout plans. And for the fat kids, they're just looking for a workout and those magazines seem like they'd help, if you look at the pictures.

[josh-hill]

everyone is looking for the magic shortcut. There are some things that do make a difference. lifting fast vs slow will target slow / fast twitch muscles respectively. But on the whole, its all marketing