Pumping Bullshit
This Blog is gonna be a little different than some of the other subjects I write about. I haven’t really written much about fitness as of late. My interest level in it as a subject to write about isn’t very focused or positive. I will try to stay on topic here… However, I will be jumping from some psychology here and some industry focused stuff, mainly on Multi-Level Marketing (MLM).
This blog will be filled with opinions from my knowledge and direct experience in the field of both fitness training and working with MLM companies over the years. I will have a take that may trigger some, mainly those that blindly follow “fitness personalities,” believe every word they say and that they can say/do no wrong. I will also show some positive support to these same “fitness personalities.” So, if one is overly hypersensitive to things like this you may want to pass this blog right on by…
Fitness personality Calum Von Moger, an Australian fitness personality, best known for his portrayal of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2018 film “Bigger.” Over the years Calum has been a fitness celebrity of sorts. It is hard to say if he is a real celebrity or not. As the fitness world is a Hollywood type situation, or more accurate the porno industry; but only in their little circles of the fitness industry and the people that follow that blindly.
In the real world, most people wouldn’t know who this guy is and why others believe him to be a big deal at all. I too once followed the man and was very positive about the things he would post on social media. That has ended, obviously… As I write this Calum is just healing up from a spinal surgery he had to undertake due to jumping out of a window, high on recreational drugs and causing harm to himself. I am not going to go back and forth with the; “How did this happen:” and what not. The guy clearly has issues. It is a sad story, about a sad person, posing to be something he is not. A strong, happy, and healthy human-being.
There is way more dark, negative, stuff out there about the man than there is positive, but if one only knows from the fitness world and/or his Instagram one would never really know or look at the man as a very troubled personality and human being…
Notice, I called him a “fitness personality” and not a “professional bodybuilder.” We see more reality TV style Mentality in the fitness world more now than ever before. Being a professional isn’t nearly as profitable as being “a reality star” in 2022. Nor was it back in 2010 when Rich Piana started making a name for himself on YouTube. That is what the fitness industry is now. Reality TV. Every fitness person now has a podcast, has something to say, usually negative, to draw up some heat on them so they can get more clicks/views to take to the next fitness company to get their next paycheck sponsorship. It’s almost like professional wrestling but with way less talent. You have all these companies out there selling supplements, clothing lines and online coaching. I have written many blogs about how fake the fitness world actually is. Everything from the people to the supplements and online coaching fads. The fake fitness models, some don’t even train, just look good, throw on some leggings and a sports bra, take their pics, make their posts, cash their checks or now cash-out their cashapps…
It has
gotten to a point that I have removed most of the fitness personality types
from my social media. I am just no longer interested to hear what these people
have to say about Health, Life, Happiness and Fitness anymore. Some years back
it was funny, entertaining and if I could get a neat new workout out of it,
great. Those days has since vanished. When you are disabled and you learn about
the real world ramifications of what being disabled is and how limited you are
due to your disability, then have a nonmedical professional or professional of
any kind, tell you; “here is some free
advice about your condition…”
First, no
advice from a fitness personality is free. It’s all a sale’s pitch. Everything
done is to get you to purchase their products/packages, get some success (if
any) and then buy more. It’s all about the reoccurring billing. I could spend
hours and thousands of words here explaining what companies like this do. Some
of the best examples of fake fitness companies are: Herbalife, AdvoCare, V
Shred, Beachbody, It Works! These are, what they call, Network Marketing or Multi-Level
Marketing (MLM), or Pyramid Marketing. We all know that word Pyramid Scheme very well…
MLM is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the sales is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company's products or services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system. The more you sell, the more you get paid, but the more your boss takes from you as well. Most bosses don’t even sell anymore because they make enough off other’s sales as part of the pyramid. That is the goal… To get someone to produce to a point they can then train their own sales staff and just sit back and collect commissions from their sales. A major point is to try and get your friends/family to purchase into this system. Friends/Family are more likely to help you but also taking their money is no problem to the sales companies.
I don’t know… I have a problem with that. You should too…
Here is a good video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg84UW4F6rU This video is for V Shred specifically, but you can apply this to any of the companies I have mentioned. If you are serious about fitness do not invest your money into these systems, products, especially the product lines. If you learn anything here, it is never buy supplements from companies like this. You are basically tempting fate with your Health. Hey, I wasn’t a diabetic till after I started taking supplements that had “proprietary formula” written all over that some bitch… That is just a fancy way to tell people “they do not have to tell you what is in this stuff and the FDA doesn’t bug us about it either.”
Yeah… Sounds legit… Thanks Coach…
Coach – Dummied down word to describe a personal trainer with the barebones education, knowledge, experience to be training anyone other than a beginner; because they themselves are a beginner. They may or may not be certified or even technically educated in any way related to health, fitness, nutrition and CPR.
Online fitness companies like this are some of the best at describing the level of bullshit, woke, misinformation, car salesperson mentality you will ever see on the internet. It’s a goddamn template formula and it works. Works for the company to make them money while you the customer are filled with empty promises, placebo pills and training workouts that defy common sense, logic and even science. I am so glad I got out of the bodybuilding/powerfliting/fitness/coaching scene as a job/lifestyle.
This literally sucked the life out of me. All I wanted to do was be like Mickey from Rocky and just call people bums while they sweated their fat away… I wanted to train people because I couldn’t be a professional athlete myself. I wanted to be in the mix as much as I could be, so I went to be a trainer and all I learned was how to be a lying, cheating salesperson of nonsensical woke mentality…
I did this for nearly two years before I gave it up for good. This was one of the better choices I ever made... I stopped looking up to these guys/gals as heroes during this time, hell before this time. Probably around when Rich Piana died, did I start seeing these guys/gals for what they are, frauds, liars, cheaters, manipulators. False prophets… The fitness world has to be one of the hideous fashion shows I have ever been apart of. These people have narcissistic tendencies to a new level of granger.
One of the few things that stands out about them to me is their incredibly inflated self-belief in themselves that is based on almost nothing provable other than their word for it. They believe their own bullshit like the karate guy next door who punches air 10-feet away from their opponents and somehow knocks people over. It is downright delusional behavior. That concept right there should have people running for the hills. It’s almost predatory in a sense because these people look for the ignorant to pitch their ideas, products, packages to.
I am not
saying all people into fitness are like this. I am not saying all people that
work in fitness are like this. I am just saying I have met a lot that are. I am
not even saying Rich or Calum is like this. I am simply stating what I have
noticed over the years more times than not. I know and have worked with some
amazing people in fitness. I have also waited outside in the parking lot for
others. I have empathy here for Calum and what he has had to go through and
will have to endure to get better. I am not gonna bet
on it but I still feel for the guy. All I am saying is; as I do feel bad for
what has happened with him. It doesn't
surprise me at all. Actually, in a joking sort of whey, one could see this
coming. It really shouldn't be a surprise that these fitness celebrities have "these kinds of problems" in
their life. The ending to a fitness personality’s life and career usually ends
the same way, tragically…
These kinds of problems, as in, drugs, Mental Health issues, shady business practices. Come on, really? To be a bodybuilder/powerlifter at this level one has to be on that edge of sanity an insanity.
Look what these people go through, look what they do to their bodies. Their lives, their loved ones. More horror stories than happy endings... Change my mind will you! You probably can’t… I have seen it firsthand myself.
I understand when the Internet Troll wants to attack lifters, fitness personalities for their drug use, be it narcotics or performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but to always point to the needle isn't really an argument anymore. I mean if you really wanna discuss it, it will come up and it does have its part to play, but think about what those chems actually do. They make everything bigger, larger, more grandioso. This also includes mental stability. If one has Mental Health issues already, any drugs, be it roids, test, weed, bipolar meds, alcohol; it will exacerbate the condition more times than not.
Go Ahead Change My Mind I’ll Wait!
What you see specifically here is a man that has serious Mental Health issues. These issues were there before, maybe not at the extreme level it is now, but they-were-there. People do not just lose their shit overnight or lose their shit one time in band camp and did some blow. No... These things happen over many years of abuse. Be it drug-related, alcohol, or other mental stresses that life provides.
Because the man is a physical Adonis we have more reserved judgments about this because, you, I, most, cannot duplicate those results specifically. There are a lot of drugs these lifters use to attain their physique. No doubt about it, just that isn’t the main/only reason this happens to fitness people. They already have issues, major ones, we just do not see them online all that often. They-are-there…
The use of PEDs, whatever they may be, is a given in all of sports. It’s more focused in physique, bodybuilding, powerlifting and even Cross-Fit because of the direct correlation between PEDs and how it can help the body look and/or perform a certain, specific way in a matter of weeks and/or months.
However, there are plenty of examples where people use these drugs, and do just fine at life, health, fitness, inner/outer love. To simply just blame the chems for all of it is an extremely narrow assessment of why more horror stories like this and bad endings happen over happily ever after endings in the fitness world.
I know people personally involved in the fitness industry that are the greatest and best of us that have ever lived. They do it by example, regardless if they had to cheat to get there, but what is cheating, exactly?
If you mean being extremely successful in life, in monies, business, looks, physique, strength and conditioning... Are there rules in that- that directly say don't do this or its cheating? No, we all cheat… At life, all of us, every single one of us are cheaters at something in life. That cannot be denied…
As I said to begin my dissection here, I get what people are saying, but to simply just use the steroid argument and conversation is over as the only and main example, isn't just incomplete. No, it’s like beating Glass Joe in Round 3 of Mike Tyson's Punch Out on the old NES and telling people you mastered the game. The reality is most people KO Glass Joe in the first or middle to late 2nd round. To play him in the 3rd round, one should quit and start over lol or never play Mike Tyson’s Punch Out ever again because you suck...
There is
more to it than just abusing anabolic this, HGH that. So much more… I am not
saying the Trolls are wrong or insulting their intelligence by defending PED
usage. I am simply saying it’s incomplete and over explaining why it’s
incomplete.
Mental Health doesn't care if you care, about anything. Mental Health doesn't care if you are fat, skinny, judged as pretty or ugly. Mental Health doesn't care whether one is emo, country or metalhead. Mental Health doesn't care about your passions or care about your romantic life. It certainly gives zero fucks about your children and/or the next generation to absorb the pain and not know how to deal with it.
The point of this is, just this, Mental Health does not care what you care about or care that you are able to care at all. People do believe that if they attain their wants, hopes and dreams that they will be happy. I'd love to see the actual evidence that suggests this is at play as a real thing and not just another Instagram fitness model post about dreams coming true or she was a fierce creature in the Universe walking alone. Just sayin’… I am a nut for the accuracy of data.
No... I am writing a well thought-out blog about why bodybuilders, powerlifters, physique competitors and crossfiters are so mentally unbalanced to a cloud nine degree of misery is if one already has severe Mental Health issues, being a professional at the elite level just makes those problems more grandioso. The average troll will say it’s all the HGH and Steroids, they are not wrong, but to be right, they need to be more specific than just using the pink elephant as the main, and in most cases, only thing to point to.
No, Mental Health is POWERFUL AF…
What does the data say? Just check for yourself what the YouTuber’s says every
few weeks. There are plenty of fitness podcasts out there chopped edited to
make it sound like these people know what the fuck they are talking about. I
have been editing videos for 23 years at this point and if I go unscripted just
ranting away I’d have to edit every few words just so I do not sound like I am
bumbling over my own words. I am not a professional at being in front of a
camera trying to make videos with talking points. These fitness personalities aren’t
professionals either. They are literally learning on the job. Just because they
do not have video production degrees doesn’t mean they don’t know what they are
talking about either. However, it does make me want to look into what they say
more clearly because they could be and probably are just bullshitting to get
more clicks/views and take that data to their bosses to get paid. I am not
fascinated by the appeal anymore of what your everyday fitness personality has
to say on their podcast. I lift now just so I can stay looking young for as
long as my body holds out and this disease allows me to live…
If Mental Health wants to take you down, you can bet you are going down. All you can do is minimize the damage. If one is this unhappy they jump out a window. Simply doing things that change a life isn't enough. One just takes those problems onward. Take losing drastic amounts of weight, fast, as an example… In this case, it was being thicker and now one is less thick. That journey can literally change the wiring of a human’s brain, both in a good way and not so good way. The same goes for the steroid abuser. Not all steroid users are abusers but the data tends to show that most cannot not abuse it either. If someone is not seeking counseling and has feelings of hurting themselves directly or indirectly, I am guilty of indirectly; I'd highly recommend that they do get some therapy. I am in therapy. Most real successful people are and if they say they are not, they are lying.
Remember, Mental Health Doesn't Care About You. You Do Though...