T-Nation and Biotest;Macho bottles of blueberry powder.

T-Nation is a bodybuilding,and strength training site that's run by a supplement company called Biotest.
To give the best example of the kind of supplements they sell,let's talk about indigo 3G.It contains a substance called Cyanidin 3-Glucoside.This substance is being looked at for it's possible effects on health,and body composition.Yes,it's interesting.
But what is it really? It's a dark pigment in fruit.Blueberries,raspberries,blackberries etc..
And you can buy a bottle of it for 65 bucks from Biotest.
If you're thinking that sounds like bullshit,I agree.They were even marketing it in their pretty little blue bottles in fancy plastic boxes for a time.
They always claim to be on the cutting edge of supplementation,and nutrition.They come off like a bunch of snake oil salesmen.
I don't think all supplements are crap.But some of them are.Over hyped,overpriced,and under supported by evidence.Biotest is a perfect case.Don't be fooled.
The best way to take supplements is to know about the actual substance you're taking.Not proprietary blends with hidden amounts of ingredients.There can be sensible combinations of ingredients.There can be issues of absorption.But you should always be able to tell exactly what you're taking,and how much.
You can take blueberry extract itself for a fraction of the cost of their bottles of cool blue.
Just run a search on Amazon and you can find a bottle of capsules from Life Extension for about fifteen dollars.

Now the issues with the site.It's bad ass jet black with yellow print.Eye stabbing annoyance.Simple lists of articles,and not in order of date.They rerun a lot of old material.Constant hawking of their products by placing links to the store in the articles themselves.How does that not bias articles? It has to.
And the bully swagger macho.Testosterone Magazine.He-Man Woman Haters.( Our Gang reference to little boys who rejected girls joining their club ).
Tuff Guys!
Gosh it's so impressive.
Here's a very manly article from Chris Shugart asking if you're tough enough,or just a big sissy?
That's right,the big strong man is disappointed in you for not being tough enough.And he'll call you a sissy,or say you're leading to the pussification of America.
Oh.Here we go again.It's the Chris and Dani Shugart show.Dumb runs in the family.
These kinds of people are NOT good for bodybuilding.They're off putting to the vast majority of people in society.They're like a bad stereotype of the obnoxious lunkhead.Why do that?
Do you think people will come to you for fitness advice when you act like that?

I think T-Nation works like this.Pander to the insecure boy,or boy man,who looks for muscle building advice.Tell him you've got the secrets of no nonsense manliness right here in a bottle for him.Tell him how to be a real tough guy.Sneer at the girls, sissies,and the fat people.
Sell him your shit.

The sad thing is they're driving smarter people away from some damn fine articles written by real experienced bodybuilders,and power lifters.First class strength coaches.
Those articles are worth wading through the childishness to read.They pay the real experts to provide some valuable content.You just have to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I can't attest to the value of every article by every coach.But worth consideration.Most of these guys have their own sites too.So once you find someone's information interesting you can check them out.TC Luoma's articles,often about nutrition,can be informative too.He smears on the vulgar jokes,but he's trying to keep up with the latest food news.
T-Nation also has a YouTube channel that runs lifting,and exercise demonstrations.Sound material.

The site is playing hard to the manly point of view.There goes much of the fitness audience.
But they clearly don't have the intention,or the ability to compete with the mainstream big leagues of the industry.
But on the other hand,the truly "dangerously hardcore' to use their tired slogan are probably mostly elsewhere.On some steroid board discussing stacks.
I've got to warn them this crap isn't going to play for long.Not in a world where a Texas college football coach might actually lose his job because his players go on rape sprees.Sweet Jesus where ever could they have gotten such unacceptable attitudes towards women?
It's seeping in from somewhere somehow.

I was following T-Nations twitter,But it's click bait and the stupid sissy,pussy references wore on me.It's not worth following.Too much ick.
I will look in on the site on occasion.But I'm finding better sources.
I've never bought anything from Biotest,and I never will.I don't know who owns it.But it wouldn't surprise me if it goes belly up.Unless of course they can keep their insecure boys blowing money on their magic manly potions.

Book Review:The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women by Betty and Joe Weider.

Cover with model Shelly Gruwell

The cover of 'The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women' from 1981 by Betty and Joe Weider.
This is one of the early books I got when I was a teen starting out in weight training.
Bodybuilding for women was just becoming popular,or even known,for that matter in the late seventies-early eighties period.This book was published by the Weider company that also put out a number of popular magazines like Muscle & Fitness.They were the company in bodybuilding and fitness at the time.Betty Brosmer Weider was the wife of the head of the company Joe Weider.
She was a pinup girl,and model.She was actually an early pioneer in the modern women's fitness movement.So she may have actually written some of the material.But I'll bet Joe,and some copy people wrote it too.
It's very basic.It's written for the new audience of young women who were just starting out in weight training.It's trying to be reassuring to the 'ladies' that weights won't make you masculine,or intimidating.
It features black and white pictures of women in leotards using a lot of Nautilus equipment.Nautilus made all kinds of exercise machines that just look unnecessarily complicated.Rube Goldberg contraptions for exercise that are basically huge expensive machines to do what you can easily do with barbells,and dumbbells.Fashionably constructed out of shiny chrome,and fake tan leather.They went out of business as a gym manufacturer years ago.But they still own a number of home brands like Bowflex,and Schwinn Fitness.
I think most things were made out of chrome in the seventies.

I think the first time I became aware of the existence of bodybuilding was probably seeing the movie 'Pumping Iron'.I must have seen it on HBO.Because I'm certain I didn't see it in a theater.
I was inherently intrigued by the act of humans forcing their muscles to grow.I was really amazed,and pleased to see that other girls,and women felt the same way.So I bought a number of the early women's bodybuilding books.
I would have to say this is one of the poorer books on the subject.There's no sense of the revolutionary spirit of women lifting weights,and becoming strong.It's very safe,and corporate.I doubt I got that much out of it.The fact is lifting weights is lifting weights.Form is form.So while I can appreciate the fact they were trying to give women something to relate to you don't need cutesy little fitness girls to learn how to lift.I read the articles in Muscle and Fitness and they had good picture spreads of male bodybuilders.They did start including real female bodybuilders too.
I did belong to a gym when I was teen(My mother joined and took me along ).But they didn't have that much equipment.Certainly not all those crazy Nautilus contraptions.But it was all a bunch of chrome!
So maybe this book was a little encouragement.But it's very dated and would only be of interest to a collector of early women's bodybuilding books.Or if you're a leotard fetishist.

Multi station weight machine

Women working out on a multi station weight machine.Running shorts,and running shoes.This looks like the kind of set up they'd have in a YWCA gym.
I hope somebody let that poor girl down.

Barbell lunge

Ladies in leotards doing lunges with light weights.

Nautilus glute machine

Goofy Nautilus back,and butt machine.Looks rather....questionable!
"Help! Let me out.I promise I'll be a good girl."
I wonder if one of these is gathering dust somewhere?

Wrist curls anyone?

Here we have a buxom model performing wrist curls.Enjoy.

There's also a chapter at the end of the book on competitive women's bodybuilding which was in it's infancy.Mainly pictures of the current star of the scene Rachel McLish.A very safe,and soft image indeed.

So this book is a minor note in the history of women's weight training.But an interesting glimpse into the mood of the time.
And so much chrome.

The value of Vitamin D and Creatine in surpressing Myostatin.

I came across a link to this article on Muscular Development about Clenbuterol.Which is a Beta2-adrenergic agonist used to treat asthma.It's also used in bodybuilding to spare muscle,and burn fat.
See the MD article for more details.Benefits of Clenbuterol.
You can learn more about the use of Clenbuterol in bodybuilding from this article on Anabolic.org
Clenbuterol is effective,but it also has risks.Personally,I wouldn't want to use it.

There's also some very interesting information about the regulation of Myostatin during exercise and how Clenbuterol affects it.Take Clenbuterol long enough and it raises myostatin.Not a good thing.
The Myostatin issue brings up a fascinating point.Myostatin works like a brake on gaining muscle.
One of the most amazing conditions that exists in the world of muscle is Myostatin-related Muscle Hypertrophy.The animals that have this gene knocking out myostatin are pretty damn freaky looking.

 

A Myostatin deficient Bull

So in the simplest terms;turn down the myostatin and turn up the muscle.This condition has happened to rare humans as well.It may very well be one of the reasons some humans have a major natural advantage in gaining muscle mass.Of course I'm sure that all gets very complicated,and speculative.But lowering the impact of myostatin on your muscles is an exciting idea as a bodybuilder.Now the question is can it be done? There are a number of products that have claimed they can lower myostatin dramatically.So far they look like a bunch of cow manure.You can't take a magic pill.
It has been done experimentally to lab mice by gene editing.That's not something you can put in a supplement.But you may be able to improve the situation by taking Creatine and Vitamin D.
From the MD article;

Certain nutritional supplements are known to inhibit myostatin. Therefore, consuming them should negate myostatin’s hold on muscle growth directly induced by clenbuterol. Creatine is a well-characterized compound that has been unmistakably shown to enhance muscle size and strength. In addition to creatine’s obvious function as a primary energy storage molecule used to regenerate muscle ATP, thus prolonging muscle function, creatine has also been shown to stimulate muscle growth.⁴ More recently, however, a study by Saremi et al.⁵ demonstrated that creatine consumption causes a decrease in myostatin levels in muscle cells, leading to significant muscle growth. In this study, two groups of men performed resistance training with or without creatine for a total of eight weeks. Both groups showed decreased levels of myostatin, but the group that performed resistance training and consumed creatine had a considerably larger decrease in myostatin levels along with greater gains in muscle mass and strength— clearly demonstrating the ability of creatine to reduce myostatin levels, improving muscle growth and strength.
Another potent myostatin inhibitor is vitamin D. As shown in a recent study by Garcia et al.⁶, vitamin D exposure decreased the amount of myostatin found in isolated muscle cells, generating greater muscle growth. In addition to the decrease in myostatin, this study also showed that vitamin D triggers an increase in the powerful inhibitor of myostatin known as follistatin, which increases muscle mass by inhibiting myostatin.⁷ Ultimately, this study indicates that the decrease in myostatin level and activity caused by vitamin D significantly increased muscle fiber size.

Creatine Monohydrate and Vitamin D are easy safe additions to any lifters supplements.I'm sure most amateur bodybuilders take creatine sometimes.But vitamin D levels may not be considered.That's a mistake because vitamin D is important for over all health.
Dr Rhonda Patrick has a great video about the target range for vitamin D and it's benefits.

Vitamin D 
is actually a secosteroid and usually taken as a supplement in the form of D3.
You can of course get it foods,and from sunlight as well.
If you are going to take it as a supplement it might be best to take it with a meal containing green vegetables rich in Vitamin K,and K2.That will help the vitamin D take calcium into your bones rather than depositing it in your soft tissues where it may damage your arteries.
But do please research this for yourself when making any decisions about what supplements to take.After all I'm just some nobody on the internet :)

Keeping your myostatin levels down could have a positive impact on muscle growth over time.If you're trying to build muscle without taking AAS,and other drugs,that could be a real plus.

I'll leave you with a talk from a real hardcore lifter, Stan Efferding, who does believe in the benefits of Vitamin D.