We at MuscleWeek wish Todd and Shawna the best and look forward to reading Ron Harris’s Todd’s column each month in the pages of Muscular Development. Todd recently stated that his plan was to hit the stage in 2012 at a mighty 285 lbs. Considering that is 30 lbs more than he weighed at the Nationals, that is indeed a lofty goal.

While we only want the best for Todd and Shawna, we certainly hope that Todd continues to put his health and family ahead of his bodybuilding aspirations. As many of our readers know, Todd was hospitalized and severely ill in early 2011 and briefly considered foregoing his bodybuilding career. God bless!

Every now and then, the general naivete of the mainstream media is exposed for the bodybuilding community to mock. Usually this occurs when an obvious steroid user (Chael Sonnen, Sean Sherk, Phil Baroni, Cyborg Santos) with hyper-muscularity tests positive and then makes some absurd claim about never having even heard of steroids or having taken some obscure supplement no one has ever heard of and claiming that the manufacturer — rather than stuff the cannister with $.42 of worthless maltodextrin powder, actually went to the great effort of illegally obtaining raw steroid compounds at a far more significant price and spiked their product with juice solely to improve buyer performance. Yeah, right.

So when I came across this photo of University of Georgia cheerleader Anna Watson flexing her biceps and putting thousands of juiced female figure, fitness, bikini and bodybuilding competitors to shame, and then having the gall to claim that she chose a cheerleading gig at Georgia over a ‘$75,000 fitness model contract’ because the agency wanted her to take the oral steroid Anavar, I had to laugh.

After all, here is a girl whose steroid use is obvious to even the most novice of bodybuilders and yet somehow the mainstream media is running with some home-spun tale of how this totally jacked-to-the-nines, testosterone-laden female was nearly ‘victimized’ by some unscrupulous ‘modeling agency’. To top it all off, like thousands of other narcissistic and brainwashed delusional liars, she gives all credit to Jesus. And by Jesus, she probably means the code word she texts to her dealer meaning ‘oxandrolone’.

Adding fuel to the liar, I mean fire, is her claim that she ‘turned down’ a $75,000 fitness model contract. Really, Anna? I mean, that’s a terrific DHV (Demonstration of Higher Value), but it certainly doesn’t make that ridiculous claim true. Anna, you’re a slightly above average-looking girl with nice biceps. Sure, you could probably make $75,000/year working the webcam for the muscle schmoe logging on to herbiceps.com with his penis firmly in hand, but no one is paying ANY fitness model a $75,000/year contract. But if Anna’s covertly genius plan comes to fruition and this ‘news item’ generates enough water cooler talk, I’m sure that Playboy’s Hugh Hefner will be happy to cough up that much for the public to see more than just her biceps. At the very least, it could bring the word ‘penoris’ into the collective consciousness and the entire Bulldog student body would learn if the curtains match the drapes.

A Mere Mortal and Anna Watson

I’d like to think that major media outlets would actually think for a moment before running a story like this, but hey, if the skinny-fat journalists of the world want to bury their pencil-necks in the sand and buy this whopper without a single skeptical question about how this one cheerleader has 40 lbs more muscle than any of the other girls in the University of Georgia weight room, then I guess that’s just what passes for journalism these days. Because you, Muscleweek reader, and I know the difference between a natural female and a hormonized one.

Nice try, Anna. You can pull the wool over some of the people’s eyes, but not the Sherlock Holmeses here at Muscleweek. To put it rather bluntly, to those of us whose testosterone use hasn’t clouded our brains, your steroid use is quite elementary, my Dear Watson.

11. What do you think needs to be done to make female bodybuilding more mainstream and as popular as Figure or Bikini in the NPC or IFBB?

I don’t think they even want to make it mainstream…I think they want to keep everything within the industry…From what I understand… But if it hypothetically were to become mainstream – Physique is where it’s at. Although they’re already getting leaner and leaner each show – and that is not mainstream…The general public doesn’t wanna see girls with striated glutes. Period. I give it 5 years before Physique chicks get enormous and super shredded. Same thing happened to Fbbing. They’ll keep having to make a new category every 5 years lol! Orrrrrrr STOP REWARDING the big, shredded to the bone girls…When they created Physique they were specifically told to NOT be as conditioned as bodybuilding so it could become more mainstream…And that ideal has quickly vanished! Not to take credit away from my girls that work their asses off, literally! But I’m just sayin.

12. Okay. Fun stuff. If you were stranded on a desert island. All alone. The island had a gym. Would you still train? What 3 items would you bring with you if you KNEW you would be stranded there?

Hells yea!!! My lifting belt, FOOD, and my sleeping pills lol. Can’t sleep without em! Nothing to do???? EAT! SLEP! TRAIN! LOL. By the time they found me I’d look like Kim Chesvesky lol.

13. What kind of guys do you go for? Is it common practice for female bodybuilders to want their male counterpart?

Big huge massive bber guys…mmm! Lol! Big, huge, lean, tan, hairless, big, preferably Italian, yeahhh…Lol! But if you’re not Dave (Pulcinella), you probably can’t look like that AND have a personality, never mind an IQ worth stating! Bodybuilders have always laughed in my face when I’ve said I want a huge bber who’s smart, and has a personality! They don’t exist! If the whole world juiced, trained their asses off, shaved their whole bodies, tanned, and dyed their hair dark – the world would be such a hot place lol!

14. Ready? Marry. Fuck. Kill. Kai Green. Evan Centopani. Frank McGrath.

Why do I have to marry or kill anyone?!?! Ugh! Fine.

Fuck = Kai. Ummm…I’m having trouble with the Kill…Hmm…Sorry Frank…I luv ya buddy but I gotta kill ya! Evan’s a sweetheart, so I guess I’d marry him (if I believed in marriage).

15. If you found a magic lamp and out comes a Genie and he gave you ONE WISH. What would that wish be?

Oooohhhhh…..I’d go back and not make a mistake I made that hurt someone I love very deepy. My life would be completely different right now.

16. What’s one thing about Hayley McNeff that not many people know about?

Um I love chick flicks!! And I’m a hopeless romantic. I do in fact have a girly side, just not many people get to see it, hehe.

17. Besides your studies and hitting the gym what else really interests you?

Um what else is there?! Lol just kidding. Um, seriously though… I like going out to dinner and eating cheeseburgers…? I think everyone already knows that though. I like drinking bud light lime with my chick friend’s from school at bars around Chicago – the city is awesome.

Yea really all that matter to me right now is getting awesome grades so I can get a killer job as a psychologist and live my dream! And being jacked must happen at all times! Ps, really hard juggling those two…I feel so small right now! I have finals this next week – not gonna see the gym for yet another week! That’s like 3 more lbs gone right there lol!

18. Do you have any obscure hobbies? You don’t collect dead fly’s or keep your toenails in a jar in your closet do you?

Hobbies…I don’t know the meaning of the word…If I do anything it’s 100%. Hobby – implies it’s part-time…Uhh yea no. I collect muscles! Lol! I can think of an addiction: texting! I have a problem…Lol

19. Where does Hayley McNeff see herself in 5 years?

Working as a psychologist in a correctional facility, and hopefully more jacked than I am now! I would love to work in a psych ward at some point as well, and eventually own my own practice when I get older.

20. Who would you like to give a shout out to?

Lol EVERYONE! Dave Pulcinella, Mike Pulcinella, Carrie Avila, Jerry Ward, Jerry Beck, Colette Nelson

Word Association: I drop a name. You put the first word that comes to mind. Ready?

I’m not doing ONE word. Can’t do it dude.

Dave Pulcinella: The most loving, amazing person I’ve ever met. I am blessed to have you in my life.

Steve Blechman: Uh I know I know that name, and he’s important…??

Derek Anthony: Nut job! Lol! Love ya Derek!

PJ Braun: Louis’s fake fb bf

Aaron Singerman: Jewbacca!

Steve Weinberger: Severe/In charge

Iris Kyle: Die hard bodybuilder/nuts about bbing! Lol

——-

Many thanks to Hayley for being such a great sport. If you’d like to be featured/interviewed on the #1 Ranked Bodybuilding Website — MuscleWeek — please drop us a line or submit your info via our contact page. MuscleWeek will work with you to promote and help raise your visibility as an athlete and public figure.

There once was a time when a BBD could hypothesize that a Bodybuilder’s income would consist of:

– Magazine Sponsorship
– Supplement Company Sponsorship
– Guest Posing Appearance Fees
– Seminar Fees
– DVD Sales
– Ancillary Product Sponsorship

But what we know is that Bilbo Chickerdildo’s financial stake in Egg Whites International not withstanding, there are NO ANCILLARY PRODUCT SPONSORSHIPS. Yes, KEVIN LEVRONE attached his name to the idiotic TRICEPTOR device that sold 43 units and yes SETH FEROCE attached his name to an equally retarded contraption he endorses that has sold even LESS than the TRICEPTOR, but no bad inventor is paying a Pro any endorsement money other than to make the schmoeing look legitimate.

And there are no more DVD SALES. Mitsuru Okabe hasn’t made a video in years, as he went broke making videos for 2nd tier bodybuilders who couldn’t sell 100 units/year and got stuck with massive inventory as DVD ripping and Youtubing became the de facto way of obtaining your copy of Ronnie Coleman’s ‘Unbelievable’. Bye bye DVD Sales!

Seminars?? Bwahahaha!! Who the fuck pays for a seminar??? It’s just a glorified excuse to sell a few 8×10′s and maybe finally dump those copies of the 10-year old Mitsuru video he shot back in 2001. Sad.

We all know Optimum Nutrition, BSN and Muscletech are looking less and less at bodybuilding and more at Physique and MMA, so good luck new IFBB Pros — especially those who aren’t just ‘endorsed’ by a supplement company so the owner can legitimize his payments to the BB/gearslinger for all those kits of serostim he delivers by DHL.

Which brings us to GUEST POSING. We’ve all seen the noobs talk about guest-posing as way for guys to make good cash. And yes, in the olden days, promoters would occasionally go out and book a guest poser. When I repped Kevin during his prime, I believe we received 3-4 offers for guest posing over the course of 3-4 YEARS!! and though Kevin’s quoted fee was $4500, it seemed as though no one ever offered more than $1500. Weird, huh??

But eventually, even guest posing opportunities dried up. The new guest posing scam was a simple one whereby one would be forced to guest pose as part of his supplement contract’s terms. So that $30,000 supplement contract INCLUDED a mandatory 10 guest posing appearances.

With the supplement companies supplying all of the guest posers for free as part of their contest sponsorship, the few opportunities for guest posing income all but dried out. Except out on the West Coast where uber-promoter and IFBB Judge John Lindsay continued to pay a reduced guest posing fee of $500 — allowing LA area bodybuilders to continue pick up some income for guest posing services.

But now, even those days are no longer. Because John no longer utilizes the services of bodybuilders as guest posers. Why? Because in John’s words, ‘Maybe three people in the audience would clap.’

Huh? What does that mean? Why would only three people clap?

‘Because the audience is all women!’ he replied.

Ahhhhh….now I get it. The implication, of course, that an audience filled with women would, err, lack the MEN to provide the necessary enthusiasm to justify the presence of a MALE bodybuillder. And that the WOMEN attending to watch their friends or Bombshell Sisters in Bikini and Figure would have ZERO interest in watching an off-season male bodybuilder flex for them.

With bikini and figure now DOMINATING most contests in terms of entries, it would logically follow that the AUDIENCES of those contests would consist of those who care to WATCH bikini and figure competitions. Now, I don’t know about your friends, but as a red-blooded, card-carrying heterosexual male, I can firmly state that I have ZERO interest in watching an NPC Bikini or Figure contest. Hawaiian Tropic or Hooters or MTV Spring Break Bikini girls writhing on stage to music and booty shaking? Yes. NPC Bikini girls doing quarter turns and trying to create the illusion of an ass despite being on zero carbs for 8 weeks? No thanks.

Fitness with chicks doing flips and cartwheels and Cirque De Soleil shit? Yes. Figure contestants doing quarter turns and looking like female bodybuilders too chickenshit to add Anadrol and Tren to their Anavar and Winstrol cycles? No thanks.

The death of the guestposer is directly related to the death of bodybuilding in general. Yes, the USA or Nationals gets 500+ entries these days. But whereas that used to be 70-80% bodybuilding competitors, today it’s closer to 70-80% bikini and figure competitors. And therefore, why pay a bodybuilder guest-poser to entertain an audience of women there to watch bikini and figure contestants? And if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.

So let us all say a prayer and mourn for the Guest-Poser of yesteryear.

Because Guest-Posing is Dead.

RIP.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is a short lesson on ‘Bodybuilding Journalism’. In Bodybuilding magazines, there is no such thing as journalism. If you read a story detailing a bodybuilder’s legal troubles, it’s because someone has an axe to grind. If you read an article glossing over a bodybuilder’s legal troubles, it’s because the publisher has been ordered not to disclose the details of those troubles or because the publisher has that bodybuilder under contract. If you can’t find an article about a bodybuilder’s legal troubles, it means that those troubles are true and the publisher/website has been threatened with press pass extinction if they mention the story.

Whew! Glad we got that out of the way.

So when you read an article from MD Publisher Steve Blechman glossing over Victor’s troubles, you can be 100% sure that it’s SPIN. And when you read an article from RX writer Aaron Singerman detailing Victor’s legal troubles, you can be equally sure that it’s RX owner David Palumbo grinding an axe against his former boss Blechman and Victor’s sponsor Muscular Development. Unlike most in the Bodybuilding industry, Aaron actually conducts some due diligence by making phone calls and learning a few facts before publishing an article. However, in Victor’s case, Aaron was led astray by either an ignorant or deceptive source.

Here is the real deal regarding Victor’s situation:

Victor was detained at the airport upon returning from Europe following his Arnold Europe victory because he was detained by DHS (Department of Homeland Security); however, don’t mistakenly assume that this has anything to do with terrorism — DHS absorbed both the US Customs and US Immigration Departments. Victor was questioned by DHS officers and then ordered to be detained at an ICE facility (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) known as Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey.

About Hudson County Correctional

Hudson County Correctional’s ICE Facility currently houses about 350 immigration detainees. Unfortunately, it is easy to become depressed inside Hudson County Correctional. Detainees held there live in rooms that hold 65 detainees, separated from the normal jail population. The available outdoor recreation space is a caged unit attached to a dormitory door. Communal televisions turn off at 9 pm. And by all reports, the food available to detainees and inmates alike is nutritionally sufficient, but absolutely awful.

By all accounts it is a degrading and demoralizing atmosphere.

First, let’s make an assumption based on all of the facts before us. Victor Martinez is NOT a citizen of the United States of America. One could previously have assumed that Victor was a U.S. citizen based on his participation (and victory) at the NPC US Men’s Nationals back in 2000; however, that assumption would be wrong. No United States citizen may be legally detained at an ICE facility. Therefore, Victor is not a U.S. Citizen.

We can assume that Victor, in fact, was a Permanent Resident (Green Card holder). A Permanent Resident (PR) is permitted to leave the United States and travel freely as any United States citizen would be. The only difference is that a PR may only remain outside of the United States for up to two years (consecutively) as opposed to no limitation on the length of stay for a US citizen.

From what we know, it appears that prior to 2011, Victor Martinez had not left the United States since before his convictions. This makes perfect sense. A PR who has a criminal conviction for a drug-related offense will encounter scrutiny upon seeking renewal for his green card and an investigation may lead to deportation proceedings at that time. Furthermore, Victor should have been aware that regardless of his green card status, upon re-entry to the United States he would come under scrutiny for his criminal convictions.

Which brings us to a major question: How was Victor Martinez able to freely return to the United States without incident after travelling abroad this year for both FIBO and the Sheru Classic in India?

The answer, my friends, will be posted on Friday in The Real Victor Martinez Story: Part II. And yes, it’s a real SHOCKER!

I hear people rambling on about quality protein and nonsense like that. Back in the 70′s everyone including Arnold used Calcium Caseinate (Milk Protein) and those guys looked insane (Mentzer, Platz, Padilla, Robinson). Then in the 80′s, Egg Albumin (Egg protein) became the rage. Remember? Perfect 4.0 protein on the quality protein scale they’d show you on the Weider container?

Then soy protein made a brief comeback and now it’s whey protein. But not just whey protein. No, of course it has to be more complicated. Whey protein isolate works ‘much better’ than whey protein concentrate (yeah right) which is superior to the perfect egg protein which is better than soy which is better than the milk protein that built all of the guys that today’s crop of oilbags can’t hold a candle to.

In every industry, they have product cycles that last anywhere from 1-7 years. When the cycle has been exhausted, they reinvent the wheel. What’s outdated becomes fresh. What’s old is new. What’s forgotten is suddenly remembered.

A close friend of mine ran global product development for a major cosmetics company for ten years. It was IDENTICAL to the supplement biz right down to how they prey upon the ignorance, the hopes, the short memory, and the vanity of the consumer.

Let’s take a product like foundation that all women use to mask their freckles, acne, blotches and other facial imperfections. You could buy maybelline foundation for $5 a bottle. Or you could buy Loreal foundation for $15 a bottle. If you are rich, you might buy Lancome for $50 a bottle. But it really doesn’t matter because it’s all made in the same factory, formulated in the same lab, and contains the same ingredients. The only difference is the packaging and the marketing.

Do women know this? Many of them do. But they would always still buy Lancome over Maybelline. Even knowing it’s the identical product, they will still prefer to purchase the more expensive product. Why? Because of how it makes them feel INSIDE to spend more money, have a nicer looking product, and know that Catherine Zeta Jones wears the same product as they do.

All of us KNOW that bodybuilders today look WORSE than the bodybuilders of the 70′s and 80′s. Despite having BETTER EQUIPPED GYMS. Despite having MORE KNOWLEDGE. Despite having ACCESS TO MORE INFORMATION.

But are today’s SUPPLEMENTS really any better or superior to those from the 70′s and 80′s?

Because we KNOW that today’s bodybuilders are eating MORE PROTEIN, shooting MORE STEROIDS, using MORE INSULIN, and pinning themselves with MORE GROWTH HORMONE.

We buy the WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE and any other shiny supplement for the same reasons a girl buys Lancome. We REALLY REALLY want to believe that’s how Jay Cutler got so big. We REALLY REALLY want to believe we too can get HUGE or RIPPED if we take this product.

But I challenge you to use Google Images to set your mind straight. Look at photos of the bodybuilders of the 70′s who were using a fraction of today’s drugs. Tom Platz’s legs built WITHOUT a PRE WORKOUT FORMULA. Danny Padilla’s physique built WITHOUT an NO ‘supplement and Arnold’s chest and arms built WITHOUT any of this WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE garbage.

Gentlemen, we have been fooled to the 99th degree. The supplement companies took a page out of the women’s playbook that feeds upon a woman’s innate insecurity and they used that play on us.

Today’s bodybuilders look worse than ever before. You’d be hard pressed to find ANY BODYBUILDER in ANY GYM with a dense quality physique as seen on Mentzer back in the day.

And for you modern day guys, make no mistake: Our very own KEVIN LEVRONE NEVER USED ANY SUPPLEMENTS. NOTHING!

I challenge each and every one of you to THROW OUT YOUR WHEY PROTEIN ISOLATE. Or at least put it away in the garage or basement (don’t worry, the bugs won’t go near it). Double your milk intake, eat your chicken breasts and fish and continue eating your eggs. Try it for 30 days and tell me if you got weaker. Tell me if you got smaller. Because YOU WON’T!!

Take the MuscleWeek Protein Challenge and report back to us with your results.

This challenge could save you THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS over your lifetime and THOUSANDS OF HOURS in shopping and cleaning protein shakers.

Gentlemen, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Will you accept the PROTEIN CHALLENGE?