the fitness business and ht

[topccat29]

The health and fitness business has so much in common with the hair transplant business. If I knew what I knew now when I was young I could have saved myself so much wasted effort and time. The fitness business had its publications and they were always heavy on marketing the next best thing much like what we sometimes see on the forums. As a young man I ate it all up. I believed what I was reading and the pictures that I was seeing and I was clueless to the fact that it was all a bunch of horseshit.

Each and every year a new machine, system, pill or powder came out to replace the one that came out in the previous year. Much like we see in the HT business. Special tools, methods, techniques, blah, blah, blah mostly just more horseshit. But for some reason people seem to be attracted to horseshit. The bigger the promise the more attentive they seem to become. It €™s almost like hypnosis in a way and it all still goes on today.

I have gotten to the point and it took many years, where I finally have a solid understanding of what it takes to get fit. What needs to be done and why. But here is something I find almost funny. I am constantly approached by people in the gym asking me what do I need to do in order to achieve the same level I am currently at being 48. I don €™t write this to brag but to simply make a point. The advice I give them is very simple and based on common sense and not on marketing and profit or the horseshit in the fitness publications. But it €™s almost like they don €™t want to hear it and have a hard time believing it. Regardless of what I am saying to them instead of listening they always seem to be asking well what about this supplement or this program or this or that. The marketing has been so intensely drilled into their head that it almost seems hopeless. Much like the prospective ht patient that can €™t wait to have that fancy drill used on their head or a vaccum to suck the graft out. Hey it €™s the latest advancement give it to me and while we are at it give me some Acell and hair plucking at the same time and you might as well throw in some armpit hair and tattooing while I €™m here.

Those same people who approached me in the gym will continue with what they were doing and will continue to believe all the marketing. Unlike the prospective patients of today that pick the wrong clinic or type of procedure and will become the next repair patient, these fitness enthusiasts will just be wasting time and effort without making any progress.

 

[Bigmac]

Good post Topcat.

 

[topccat29]

Here are some interesting facts and they are definitely worth noting as many industries follow the same marketing strategy including the hair transplant industry.

I would read all the fitness magazines when I was younger but it €™s probably been close to 20 years since I picked one up. Most of these fitness magazines are either owned or controlled by supplement companies. The information in the magazines themselves is designed to convince the reader that they need to follow a certain strategy to achieve what they see in the pictures that are presented. This strategy always includes something that directly adds to their bottom line. To the unknowing the magazines themselves just seem to be a source of information, but this is hardly the case.

Examples would include Muscle Mag International which is controlled by the Muscle Tech supplement company. Muscular Development controlled by the Twinlab supplement company. Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazine controlled by the Weider Bros. with their own line of supplements. Muscle Media 2000 which was originally controlled by MetRx then after a falling out came under the control of EAS supplements. The average person that reads these magazines is clueless that the articles are written specifically with marketing as its intention.

The magazines also have their mouth pieces that are on the payroll. They write articles and help promote product. Does all this sound familiar €¦ €¦.hmmm. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big promoter back in the day and I was a big fan. But eventually I learned that everything he had to say was a load of horseshit. I really lost respect for him when in 1980 the Weider Bros seemed to have fixed the Mr. Olympia contest in order for Arnold to win. His first big movie was just being released €œConan the Barbarian € and it was good for business. I guess it was a shrewd move and it helped launch his career along with adding to the bottom line of the Weider Bros. It all depends on how comfortable you are with stepping on people or destroying the life of another. Does that sound familiar €¦ €¦.hmmmm.

I sometimes wonder in light of recent events if that will be the next step for one of the forums. To be completely controlled by one clinic. It would seem to make good marketing sense.

I did have someone approach me in the gym last night and ask me how they could lose that last bit of fat around their waist. He told me that he was eating mostly egg whites and large portions of fruit. I explained to him that the fructose in fruit is a simple sugar and can only be stored as glycogen in the liver unlike a complex carb which in limited amounts can be stored as muscle glycogen. The rest of the fructose will just be converted into triglycerides and deposited as bodyfat. I also let him know that he should be eating the whole egg and that the cholesterol in the yolk will help his body produce more testosterone and lower his overall bodyfat. He kind of looked at me funny and asked me about using creatine, I just laughed.

 

[topccat29]

If you could hear me in the gym when I speak to people it €™s no different than my attitude on the forums. It might come off as a little abrasive but I €™m a little older and a little wiser. Unfortunately the print publications are only a one way form of media where the forums at least for the most part are two way. That is of course until you get attacked enough or banned.

The crap I used to believe when I was younger, all marketing horseshit. Joe Weider €œThe Master Blaster € trainer of champions my ass €¦ €¦..LOL €¦ €¦ €¦Sure I can laugh about it now just like I can laugh about what some of the clinics were telling me.

This is a copy and paste from Wikipedia about Muscle Media 2000. This guy Bill Phillips use to preach about how he had so much integrity and was going to bring honesty back to the supplement business. These guys are all about marketing just like a good majority of the HT clinics. It takes a very long time to figure it all out on your own. Just read another post on another forum about a butcher job by a doctor from a recommended list. It €™s the never ending story.

In MM2K Phillips highly endorsed MET-Rx (a meal replacement supplement), and this relationship with readers helped it become the highest selling bodybuilding supplement ever at that time. It was later revealed however, that Phillips and the creator of MET-Rx, Dr. A. Scott Connelly, were in fact business partners, and the endorsements clever marketing.[12][/suP] This partnership also included bodybuilders Lee Labrada and Jeff Everson. It was around this time that Phillips began working with James Bradshaw (later of SoCal Supplements).[13][/suP] Bradshaw was convicted of dispensing human and animal steroids without prescriptions in 1986.[14][/suP] This eventually would lead to Bradshaw serving four years in a Louisiana prison, where he educated himself on marketing.[15][/suP] According to former Muscle Media 2000 editor-in-chief TC Luoma, it was Bradshaw who convinced Phillips to market MET-Rx heavily in the Natural Supplement Review, Phillips' supposed unbiased review of numerous bodybuilding supplements.[16][/suP] He also had the idea for Phillips to give the Review away for free to readers of Muscle Media 2000 providing the MET-Rx with addresses of potential buyers, and a large amount of advertising. Sales of MET-Rx rose exponentially. Bradshaw and Phillips had stumbled upon a very successful method of marketing to bodybuilders, and they, and original investors Everson and Connelly, got very wealthy. Their partnership was short-lived however.[15][/suP]

Phillips and Connelly had an agreement that distribution of MET-Rx would be controlled, and that they would not sell it to retail outlets in order to keep supply low during the period of high demand created by the advertisements in Muscle Media 2000. Connelly however, had other ideas and began selling it to mainstream distributors and department stores. Phillips believed this move lessened its appeal to bodybuilders, and destroyed the "mystique" of the product.[15][/suP] The two parted ways, and as part of the settlement, Phillips was legally bound not to mention the name of MET-Rx in his magazines (thereafter he would refer to it as "the leading brand"). But by then Phillips had his eye on another venture that would eclipse MET-Rx altogether - EAS

 

[topccat29]

People need to read that little excerpt I posted about Bill Phillips, its important. It €™s no different than the person that puts together the recommended list for which the doctors pay huge fees to be on. Just like Bill Phillips they are laughing their ass off all the way to the bank, believe it.

 

[topccat29]

I do find it a bit funny that Arnold Schwaneggar now has come out and admitted that he fathered a child with one of the household staff and they all lived in the same house for 10 years without his wife finding out. Regardless of the specific issue itself it does tell you something about his character. I knew this long ago as I stated in a previous post. A person that would knowingly take credit for an achievement they knew they didn €™t deserve over 30 years ago but was mutually beneficial to both the promoter and himself tells you about his character. Especially since several lives were destroyed in the process. I listen to him when he speaks and he does make a good politician. Not because he gets things done and is good at what he does. But because he is good at making people believe his bullsh*t. Its interesting the way he will parse all his statements and it does make me laugh.

The similarities to what I see in the world of HT is uncanny. How come I couldn €™t make this connection when dealing with doctors in the past? Was I that conditioned to believe whatever they told me was the truth? I guess the answer is yes.

For those that are not familiar with the story of the scorpion and the frog. A scorpion will always be a scorpion regardless of what he says.

Character matters.

 

[zionaxel]

If it hadn ´t been for a mens fitness magazine i might not had a H.T,sliding door ´s i suppose..

 

[topccat29]

Zion that was also part of my experience so I would have to agree. It €™s amazing how the editors of those same magazines would do these in depth multi page articles with characters such as Bosley and Brandy. I never made the connection. They were paying big money to advertise in those same magazines. Joe €œThe Master Blaster € Weider sold out for a few extra dollars and I was just collateral damage.

Now when I listen to talk radio and hear all the crap that is pushed on people by the on air personalities because the advertisers pay for it I just shake my head. Everything from cosmetic surgery to grow your penis pills. They don €™t care what it is as long as the money keeps rolling in as they have no scruples.

So when I see someone being promoted by winning an award yes I make a smart ass comment. But I can assure everyone I €™m not angry as one poster wrote. But really, can we just cut the bullshit already. If you treat patients well, have the skill and always try your best you don €™t need to self promote with nonsense. When you do you insult the intelligence of the readers on the forums.

If you don't have the skill and its not your nature to treat people well then do future patients a favor and move into another line of work. I hear the government is looking for people.

 

[hairtodaygonetomorrow]

Anybody who spend a reasonable amount of time in any gym will know that suppliments are not what makes champions (or freaky muscles like in the sups ads)

what makes champions is steroids, growth hormone and insulin (hg1) sometimes even synthol.. the use/abuse of the first 1 also make people loose their hair, so theres another connection for you lol...)(_::

 

[topccat29]

I do find it interesting how the Arnold Schwaneggar story has unfolded. I could have told you about his character almost 30 years ago when it was no problem for him to destroy the life of another person for his own gain. Much like what we have seen in the HT industry. Now 30 years later the zebra has not changed his stripes and he has once again destroyed the life of another without much thought.

I wish I had been wiser in judging the character of doctors back then. Oh well better late than never.

It €™s nice to see the tone on some of the other forums start to change with less attack and more tolerance of opposing views. This is exactly the type of change we need to see. Personally I could care less who goes to which clinic as I €™m more concerned with honesty and openness.