Bodybuilding is a Complete Waste of Time after 3 Years

Here's why & what to do instead...

The most POPULAR form of fitness training for men, a waste of time?

Shocking, right?

I vividly remember my first induction into the world of bodybuilding…

My uncle, a former Australian bodybuilding champion, my father a regional champion.

I was born and raised in the weight room, watching these guys train.

Fast forward to my teens, Zyzz was all the rage (RIP). The confidence and aura of being in good shape & the focus on aesthetics had a rippling effect across all of health & fitness.

But it wasn’t until I got older & wiser, that I realised this type of training was built off the back of lies.

From falsehoods & facades.

When I found out Zyzz was a steroid abuser, and likely died of heart failure due to his recreational drug use coupled with an enlarged heart from abusing weight room drugs, It was like finding out Santa wasn’t real.

When I found out my uncle & father used steroids, it made their accomplishments far less impressive to me.

When I learnt that they were insufferable to be around due to their self obsession & severe calorie deficits to be as lean as possible (they ate raw chicken back then)

It further pushed me away from the pursuit of bodybuilding entirely.

Here’s the truth no one wants to tell you….

Bodybuilding is an absolute waste of your life after 2 years, if you’re a natural lifter.

You’ve heard of noob gains right? One of the best feelings on the planet is rapid growth…

But many of you probably have no idea that after year 3:

You’re gaining 2-3lb per YEAR.

Yes, per fucking year. That’s 0.25lb per month.

Don’t believe me?

Lyle McDonald combined extensive studies with thousands of body recomposition clients & he curated this table:

6 days a week in the gym, nutrition on point and in a surplus, all for a measly fucking 3 pounds if you’re doing everything right.

It’s like going to college, getting an A on every exam, but retaking the course for the next 5 years because you want to get an A+.

It’s a waste of time, you’ve already gotten all of the benefits of getting A’s, the job opportunities, the degree, why would you keep going back for marginal gains?

The weight room is no different.

And not only is this a poor use of your life, look at the figures that represent bodybuilding…

BODYBUILDING ATTRACTS THE BIGGEST LIARS IN FITNESS

It has become laughable at this point, seeing ‘natural’ bodybuilders claiming they have never touched a drug.

The same guys that are an influence to kids and young men all over the world.

The most laughable being Simeon Panda, who looks like a genuine comic book character, is adamant he has never touched a drug in his life.

They all promise that you can continue to grow & make progress, if you just buy their special training program and supplements (fucking bullshit).

Do you really want to invest 4-6 days a week in a training system that the most impressive athlete’s in that domain are all taking performance enhancing drugs?

Fuck no should be your answer to that.

THE MONOTONY OF BODYBUILDING

How many push pull legs splits are you going to endure?

How many more weeks are you going to invest in the same training program, to add another single rep each WEEK.

Do you really want to waste 6 days a week not learning a single skill, and focus on just putting as much muscle on as humanly possible? It’s such a fruitless endeavour.

‘I JUST WANT TO LOOK GOOD, BRO’

Sorry to break it to you pal, but you don’t need to devote your life to bodybuilding to look good (or to attract women).

You just need to look & be athletic.

Brad Pitt’s was 155lb in fight club, a movie where women obsess over his physique & shape.

So long as you have visible abs & have been slightly genetically gifted, you have your bases covered.

If the gods didn’t bless you with good genetics, you’re wasting your time bodybuilding either way.

You can also train athletically, and look BETTER than the bodybuilder bros you see obsessed with looking at themselves in the mirror.

TRAIN TO BE LETHAL INSTEAD

So what do you do then?

What should the training focus be?

What alternative do I have?

Train to become a Lethal Gentleman.

Your training should support living an extraordinary life.

The function of physical training should be the unleash incredibly large reserves of energy.

To be able to work out multiple times per day, complete 6-8 hours of hyper focused, goal specific work, and still have gas left in the tank to Flâneur at night.

I call this developing your durability or energy capital.

You can then use this energy for whatever you want:

• Martial arts training & learning how to defend yourself.

• Pushing on a new business venture or career progression.

• Playing with your kids & having the gas tank to do this after a full days work.

• Travelling the globe on business or pleasure.

The choice is yours & I will share some principles of how to set this up:

STILL BUILD MUSCLE, BUT INTELLIGENTLY

You can still have an impressive physique, you simply train hypertrophy but once you begin to get diminishing returns, you start to use it for joint health.

The good thing about bodybuilding style training is the fact that you can isolate joints and train through a full range of motion.

This is a concept I call ‘jacked mobility’ where you can improve movement and range of motion, whilst also getting jacked in the process.

Instead of this taking up 100% of your training time, it only takes up 15-20% of your total training volumes.

COMBINE CARDIO & COMPETENCE

VO2 is the largest predictor of longevity as we age.

Even more than strength or muscle mass.

Most avoid developing an elite gas tank because they think it needs to be boring.

Cardio does NOT have to be boring, the way to integrate this is by utilising forms of cardio that also have a skill based element.

Martial arts is one of the best ways to develop your cardio, whilst also learning how to defend yourself and building confidence in your ability to fight.

Additionally, playing recreational sports like tennis, golf, hiking, surfing, skiing & other forms of fun activity, will allow you to stay active and build your cardio without those boring, sterile treadmill sessions at the commercial gym.

Simply developing a lifestyle and immersing yourself in environments where high levels of cardio are a byproduct, are far easier to stick to long term.

(Have you ever seen an unfit & fat surfer? Neither have I).

START EACH SESSION WITH MAX STRENGTH

Strength is the pillar that predicts muscle growth in natural lifters (to save you going down the rabbit holes that I have, progressively overloading your lifts in the 6-20 rep range is what stimulates muscle growth).

To shoulder the burdens and stresses of life, strength is an essential pillar.

In the protocols I build, I like to include 1 key strength lift at the start of each session, and then place 3-4 ‘jacked mobility’ bodybuilding style exercises near the back end of the session.

The patterns I will typically use:

• Squat patterns (Back, Front, Safety Bar, Trap Bar)

• Deadlift (RDL, Conventional Deadlift)

• Push (Bench Press Variations)

• Pull (Pull Ups & Pendlay Rows)

THE MISSING PIECES IN BODYBUILDING TRAINING

When we reduce the % of training we dedicate to bodybuilding, this opens up plenty of bandwidth for true athletic development.

The common movement patterns I see missing in your standard training programs:

JUMPS & PLYOMETRICS

In order to stay youthful & maintain tendon elasticity, jumps are essential. Majority of older guys snap an achilles or tweak an ACL (even if they are strong), because they haven’t done this style of training for over 10 years.

They then go and play some pick up ball with their kids….. snap city.

You can start from skipping & progress all the way to maximal jumps, but this should be slowly developed over time.

VIOLENT & EXPLOSIVE ROTATION

Rotation can be trained in several ways. The most premium being sprint training I have a protocol here which you can check out if you want to sprint properly.

The rotational forces that are placed on the body are unlike anything else (besides striking).

Which then brings me to kick boxing or striking sports. These are arguably safer than grappling sports, yet provide the ability to produce power, rotational torque & turn your body into a weapon.

Other methods within a weight room include medicine ball throws, specific rotational core work & many other methods which to keep this article brief, we will cover another time.

HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING

Because building muscle is so metabolically demanding, very few lifters will do high intensity cardio, because it will ‘kill their gains’.

However, this is by far the best way to raise your VO2 max, and also allow you to be more explosive and produce force in a fatigued state (which if you are wanting to dabble in martial arts, is a very attractive quality).

The assault bike is the best way to integrate this training style as its not taxing on the joints, yet allows you to push to the point of throwing up if you want it to.

TRAIN TO BE DURABLE & LETHAL

This only scratches the surface of how to set this style of training up, however I have no doubt that you can see logically how bodybuilding after you have squeezed all the juice out of your noob gains is a waste of time.

Prepare your body to carve down a black run in Zermatt, Switzerland.

Prepare your body to hike the best trails in Kaui, Hawaii.

Prepare your body to throw a round house kick that decapitates heads.

Prepare your body for whatever life throws your way.

If you want to learn more, check out The Durability Protocol.

Talk soon.

J.Krucial.