Can I be an a-hole for a moment?

Seriously, does anyone actually do hip thrusts at the gym?

There's a certain t-nation writer that promotes them with every single article. I feel like an asshole (or a mean-girl)... like... bro hip thrusts aren't going to become a thing. stop trying to make them happen. It's WAY too easy to get a sex offender charge doing hip thrusts in a normal gym. no matter what they're not going to be the bench press or something. Just let it go.

I'm probably wrong. I bet they're like fucking sweeping equinoxes in west la and hollywood by storm. James Deen probably does a ton. Fuck I actually do them at home, they are a fabulous exercise but seriously dog...

It's not going to happen. Stop trying to make them a thing.

/end rant/ end menstrual cycle

Sorry, OG plz?

(though I guess this could go here)

T-nation is filled with writers who do nothing more than espouse their pet exercise. Yeah, you got your faux-hawked dude who is constantly pushing his glute bridge stuff. Then again, have you seen the asses of his female clients?

Then you have the doofy looking dude who looks like a tub of nothin' who spends each and every article yapping away incessantly with 101 different ways to do single leg training. To the point he's making trolling statements like "if you can't Split Squat 100 kilos 5 times you're weak"

It's perhaps the biggest drawback you have about T-nation. They have some interesting shit, but honestly, it's hard to get past the doofuses and the constant shilling of the T-nation products.

Shatner just shat the truth.

Lmao that guy gets so much shit from everyone haha Phone Post

whatever you do bro, just dont forget to megadose your flameout and surge. anyone who is seriously about strength traneing knows that surge is just as necessary as heavy weight

kyle47129 - 

Lmao that guy gets so much shit from everyone haha Phone Post


Let's face it, some of it is self-deserved.

I'm hardly the one to criticize someone's looks, I'm no fashion model myself. I don't care if you want to wear a metrosexual faux-hawk, or have three pound rings hanging off your nipples, or have an epic beard that scares small children and adults in Southeast Asian nations.

But combine that with a "one trick pony" approach, a bombastic and a few other intangibles, and you come off as a total schmuck.

I look at the writers I tend to admire on the web, and most of them have a few things in common:

1. They are knowledgeable. Now, Mr. Faux-Hawk qualifies as this, but he misses a few other points.

2. They write clearly and concisely. Listen dude, I don't need you to show off just how much anatomical minutae and vocabulary you know. Write the thing clearly using as simple a language as possible. While you are at it, keep it as short as you can to still get your point across. Save your Shakespearian monologues for another article, or your blog page.

3. They are multi-faceted. I can read about different exercises, different ideas from you. For some of the d-bags out there, I can read only the name itself, and know what the article is about, because I've read it before from the same d-bag about a dozen times already.

4. They are stylish, but not bombastic. I'm not looking for politness on articles, nor do you have to have the writing skills of Faulkner. But, have some to your shit. At the same time, don't write as if you are the biggest thing to hit the Net since Redtube.

5. They aren't a shill. This is the finest line. Any writer on a website is obviously a salesman. They want you to buy something, whether it be a program, a product, or just their services. BUT, don't be a fucking shill. No, you do NOT need to chug Flameout or Brain Candy or SUPER DUPER ENERGY XXXXXXTREME to do squats, or to even get a good workout. Recognize that. Recognize that if you want to write an article about supplements, you can recommend JOINT SUPER CARE ALPHA over plain old Walgreen's Glucosamine, but don't call the other brands shit unless you actually have a reason to.

Chocolate Shatner - T-nation is filled with writers who do nothing more than espouse their pet exercise. Yeah, you got your faux-hawked dude who is constantly pushing his glute bridge stuff. Then again, have you seen the asses of his female clients?

Then you have the doofy looking dude who looks like a tub of nothin' who spends each and every article yapping away incessantly with 101 different ways to do single leg training. To the point he's making trolling statements like "if you can't Split Squat 100 kilos 5 times you're weak"

It's perhaps the biggest drawback you have about T-nation. They have some interesting shit, but honestly, it's hard to get past the doofuses and the constant shilling of the T-nation products.

That's not the only drawback. I stopped going there when it became a gay porn website. Not that the articles are bad, but if i'm in public I can't be on that site.

I have watched the the T-nation rise and fall. I remember when they first started...They were trying to continue the legacy of the orginal Muscle Media (before it sold out). But, sure enough the T-nation dudes have sold out as well.

"They have some interesting shit, but honestly, it's hard to get past the doofuses and the constant shilling of the T-nation products." <--- TRUTH

When a training program is presented, and it comes with specific supplements as part of the plan...I call B.S. They are just doing their best to re-create the era of "CYBERGENICS"

I pay little attention to them these days.

TAKU

P.S. Can't stand C.W.

Once in a while they have useful stuff, the early stuff was the best, no they have dudes like that tub o' nothing trying to make names for themselves. It shows the quality control with some of the guys they have writing over there.

Bret Contreas loves some glute training!

lol i thought of Contreras the second i read Neos post

...I'm not alone...

For the most part I enjoy the articles and the marketing doesn't effect me at all. I guess I stopped paying really close attention but I'm not sure when they crossed over from:

"no nonsense we don't even carry creatine because you can get it just about anywhere" to "bro you might as well not even train if you don't have xxx supplement that you can only get from us via auto billing your credit card".

I respect all the writers. I may have an issue with you but for the most part they don't really pick guys that are utter IDIOTS. It's not like that scooby dude (if you know who i'm talking about) was writing articles for them.

I also respect the hustle. I realize that for the most part these guys HAVE to promote their products and it's a really fine balance between not being a douchebag and putting food on the table.

And yes that chick has a fabulous, AMAZING ass, but I live DTLA I can throw a rock and hit a chick with an equal or superior ass who probably never did a glute-hip-london-bridge-is-falling-down-extension in her life.

I'm just glad BIC and Goku finally named a couple names.  Jeez...I remember back when this forum used to not give a fuck about ripping people a new asshole.  Did that change?  (I obviously haven't been around much.)

Hell, anyone remember when we used to unrelentlessly call out Chad Waterbury on his bullshit?  Then he showed up here playing the strength coach internt martyr, as if he'd only ever been misquoted and misunderstood, until I went back and quoted his own articles at tnation, proving he actually did say shit he tried to tell us he never said.  

That one didn't go over well, as the the end editor of tnation ended up emailing me, basically asking me to tone it down a notch and quit picking on Chad.  LOL.  Those were the days.

Re the glute bridges - here's my thing...

Are they a good exercise?  Sure.  Do they serve a purpose?  You bet.  Can they be effective?  Absolutely.

Do they need to be such a massive part of a program that most of a routine ends up being designed around them?  Not so much.

At the same time, the exercise is an absolute bitch to really make effective, as you have to put a lot of setup into it in order to ever use real weight.  Simply putting a bar on the floor and sliding under it won't give you sufficient ROM.  And don't think you're gonna DL the weight up, sit on a bench, lie it across your hips, blah, blah, blah.  

Not enough ROI when you can get very similar benefit by doing other shit in the gym.  Simply and 80/20 that shit, IMO.

Wiggy - http://www.workingclassfitness.com

Dude! I got a talking to on t-nation about that as well! IIRC, it was the whole 3x BW squat, 3.5xbw DL thing right? I think my beef with him was when he said he was training fighters at Ricksons which wasn't true either. Chad in that instance was just wrong and became an MMA expert pretty much over night (I believe after like a 4 wk combatives course or something equally ridiculous). Whatever. Ah good ol' days when i gave a shit (like 4 yrs ago?). Fortunately he's not their go-to-article guy anymore.

That said, the reason I found it unnecessary to name, names is because (for the most part) they aren't blatantly WRONG. I just find certain features of the site annoying as hell. An annoying marketing theme or writing style isn't a reason to crucify someone. What I dislike, someone else might enjoy.

For instance, recent article.


... If this happens, just use your newly developed biceps to put him in a guillotine choke. Problem solved.


... This sucks in that really, really good kind of way, like watching Showgirls when...


...more variations ...than Lindsey Lohan has arrest warrants.


...more than being locked in a room with ten pre-teen girls and a Justin Bieber CD on repeat.



Annoying as fuck to me! Yet some geek-culture references would probably tickle my pickle. So this is more about annoyance than the guy being an actual prick.

Hey Wiggy,

Agreed...I remember when you were putting C.W. in his place. I never liked that dude. I guess I am being polite.

I just mostly ignore T-nation. I'ts been years since I visited on a regular basis. At this point (as far as I'm concerned) 99% of the stuff they publish is junk.

TAKU

NeoSpartan - Dude! I got a talking to on t-nation about that as well! IIRC, it was the whole 3x BW squat, 3.5xbw DL thing right? I think my beef with him was when he said he was training fighters at Ricksons which wasn't true either. Chad in that instance was just wrong and became an MMA expert pretty much over night (I believe after like a 4 wk combatives course or something equally ridiculous). Whatever. Ah good ol' days when i gave a shit (like 4 yrs ago?). Fortunately he's not their go-to-article guy anymore.

That said, the reason I found it unnecessary to name, names is because (for the most part) they aren't blatantly WRONG. I just find certain features of the site annoying as hell. An annoying marketing theme or writing style isn't a reason to crucify someone. What I dislike, someone else might enjoy.

For instance, recent article.


... If this happens, just use your newly developed biceps to put him in a guillotine choke. Problem solved.


... This sucks in that really, really good kind of way, like watching Showgirls when...


...more variations ...than Lindsey Lohan has arrest warrants.


...more than being locked in a room with ten pre-teen girls and a Justin Bieber CD on repeat.



Annoying as fuck to me! Yet some geek-culture references would probably tickle my pickle. So this is more about annoyance than the guy being an actual prick.

This post is spot on, like Michael Jordan in the playofs.

These? Phone Post

Lol I have started doing them as I was having problems with my hip flexors/adductors from squatting in 5/3/1.

I do them once or twice a week as part of a hip/glutes strengthening assistance routine alongside 5/3/1.

But yes I feel like a complete twat doing them and generally go hide in the studio to do it......

Taku,

Those were fun times, huh?  Jeez...I never minded his training stuff all that much.  Some of it I actually liked.  But he came off as such an elitist douche in his articles (remember the whole "I'm a neurologist" thing?  HA!) that he just rubbed me the wrong way.  Then when you add the jacked up lifting recommendations Neo mentioned, it just kinda pushed it over the edge.  When he showed up here that day, he acted as if he was doing us a favor. When I pointed out his own words - which he tried to say he never said - he just acted like we were picking on him.  What a clown.  

We've had tons of big name dudes here that posted and were just everyday folks like us.  No reason why he had to be any different.  Whatever.

Neo,

Yeah, I totally get what you mean.  I don't think they're "wrong", either - much in the same vein as you said.  After all, we all know that what works for some folks won't work for others, and so on.  As much science as S&C is, there is still (IMO, anyway) just as much or more to it that's art, and a lot of S&C is a shade of grey.

*waits for mommy porn reference*

That said, I don't think calling names is to be done b/c you think some guy is wrong, a prick, or whatever.  But it's about putting opinion out there.  Not in a smack-talk or gossip kinda way.  But rather as a way of expressing more ideas.

The main point of this forum should be to educate.  That's why so many of us post here.  And speaking for myself, I've learned a metric fuck-ton (<--that's a scientific measurement, BTW) here.  

Well, if we have our opinions that certain ideas/principles that are being expressed/spread around may not live up to the hype, be as good as they're made out to be, or on the flip side, don't get enough praise and aren't well-known enough, than we should put that info out there so people can take full advantage of it.

Like I said in my last response.  I don't think the glute thrusting stuff is *bad* by any means.  I just don't think it's as awesome as some of the hype makes it out to be, and the setup makes it not worth the ROI.

But then you've got LordSeano's post - one where he comes right out and says that he's doing it and why.  Great knowledge for the noobs reading the forum.

As for tnations various references...meh.  Whatever.  I'm honestly to the point that there's only a few guys I pay attention to in the industry anymore anyway.  If one of them have an article posted on tnation, I'll go read it.  Otherwise, I just leave it alone.

*shrug*

(And Neo, they got on you over at the tnation forum?  Was it b/c of the huge Waterbury fiasco that went down here back then?)

Wiggy - http://www.workingclassfitness.com