So I walk into the gym, my heart pounding more and more. I’m sweating like it’s a summer’s day. I wait for another 10 minutes because the guy behind the desk is talking to the established clientele. He finally looks up, takes my money as if he is doing me a favour by doing so and returns to his conversation. No directions, no welcome, nothing. This happens in almost every gym I go to, especially once the money is handed over and the gym subscription is completed. Then you seem get little or no help unless your in with the crowd. At some of these ‘Health Spas’, you know the type most people go to and almost faint if they start sweating thinking its a dangerous side effect of exercise, you get a spotty guy who looks half dead probably a vegetarian who is of course a personal trainer. Ask him about anything and it’s wrong because he did not learn that at college. Can’t say or do anything that’s not in the text books god forbid! So with people limited in knowledge and others simply not wanting to help it’s a hostile world for both the beginner and semi-advanced. No wonder 9 our of 10 people quit the gym within the first six months. Perhaps this is a business strategy? Don't tell people how to progress then they will leave and you have more room to get in new paying members. Not all gyms are like this, there are good ones and they know who they are.

Not only is it bad business but its bad for the sport. It feeds the stereotypes that the public builds up about us. That we are brain dead bullies. Even the scrawny teens act this way, starring people out, thinking they are the dogs bollocks simply because they have a tub of bull-o-shite and have read the latest trash in a glossy magazine.

Why do we bodybuilders do this? I have come to think that most think of everyone else as a threat. Bodybuilding is one of the most life consuming sports that you can be in and that is when you are not even competing! You are thinking of eating right from the moment you get up until the moment you sleep. Then you set the clock to get up at 2 am to eat some more. We think of training our chest on Thursday on the Monday. Bodybuilding becomes a lifestyle and for some a rigid belief system. Like any belief system if someone challenges it people feel threatened. Just like anything that requires so much effort and dedication when, real or imagined, it is challenged lesser people head for the negative button. Someone comes in and has 22 inch arms, does he get respect? One of two of his own groupie’s maybe. A few fake “Wow cool guns” pop out of some. But most will hate it, glare and think of anything possible to protect their own egos against someone being better than they are. He uses sythonol, he takes too much gear, there implants!

We bodybuilders at heart are insecure. Many will hit the roof with that statement but its fact. The fact you hit the roof shows you that it must have a ring of truth to you personally otherwise you would laugh it off or simply not be bothered or nod your head and say 'true,' a little like on the bud advert. When something triggers your safety blanket you react. We want big muscles because we think we will get respect from people when we do. We think we will be admired. We think that we will be feared! But this is false thinking. Outside the walls of bodybuilding the vast majority of people laugh at us behind our backs. They think up their own reasons as to why we do what we do. Sod them, because we have a right to be what we want to be and if that means 300lbs of ripped human muscle so be it! Much of their laughter is fuelled from jealously and envy. When we pull off our shirt and look like a Greek god it makes the guy with his chips resting on his beer belly realize just how out of shape he is.

The outside world is against us on many levels. A supplement comes out that works and it’s banned! They ban anabolic steroids but ask them what a steroid is and they could not tell you but of course they can tell you how bad they are and how they make people kill people. What I am trying to say is why let ourselves attack our own from inside our walls? Let’s drop this negative cycle of not helping people for fear they will improve ahead of us and rejoice if they do. Let’s not use the 22 inch arm guy to criticize and on the same level lets not think any less of the guy who has worked hard to get his 16 inch guns. It may make you feel better for the short term but that attitude builds up a very harsh environment in your mind which ultimately limits your progress and poisons your life, I know my ex-training partner did just the same thing and now he has no friends, no chances for the future and no life. It also makes other people not like you. I have 18 ½ inch arms and seeing Mr. 22 inch arms makes me burst with enthusiasm. Wow! I want to have 22 inch arms too! I don’t get jealous, or envious because then I would put a limit on my achievements by saying “It’s only because he injects oils!” If I think like that I will not train as hard because I have put a barrier on what I believe can be achieved. It’s like your neighbour who has a new car. Some will go out and scratch it – the mentally strong will look at it and go “I would love that car- I’m going to work for it and I will have it” They would use other peoples achievements as motivation not an excuse to feel sorry for themselves and bully someone to make them feel better.

Bodybuilding is not just about building big muscles. We need a strong mind to train hard and to diet and get ready for a show, or for most of us for the beach! That means we have all these strong minds in bodybuilding with the bulk of them appearing to be acting negatively. Imagine what we could do if we all thought positively. After all we all share the same goal, we know what it takes, the sacrifices. I admire a hardworking, positive bodybuilder because I know how hard he or see has worked to achieve the body they present. If we could all become a network where we could freely share ideas and have a genuine desire to help we would progress beyond our wildest expectations. Even the selfish could not disagree because if they told someone their secret they would benefit because someone else would have a ‘secret’ that they did not know. No one knows everything! If someone tries to ban our sport or an aspect of it we all e-mail each other, write letters and stand up together. At the moment we would have the 200lb guys saying “Yeah let’s ban the over 210lb guys!” The 250lb guys may say let ban female bodybuilding. If we all stood together we would say “we all stay or we all go” and fight for it united.

Boxing has been on the cards to be banned for a long time. It is more than the money factor keeping it alive. It is the fact that boxers would not take it. The guys who put the money into boxing would not take it, mostly because they love the sport.

I used to do boxing. I was pretty hopeless. I could hit hard but could never seem to find anyone to hit in the ring they dodged my blows with embarrassing ease and jabbed with with even more embarrassing ease! Still I went boxing. I was the biggest guy there, tight sun tanned muscles, veins popping out of my arms. Did they feel threatened? Not one. They took me under their wing. The guys who knew nothing about boxing did there best to tell me how best to jog, to skip, to hit the bag. The top guys in the gym did not look down on me and scoff. They were always giving encouragement and giving tips. If that was a typical bodybuilding gym you would get criticism or no help at all. He’s not lifting that weight properly, he’s weak because he only lifts 200lbs I can lift 300lbs! Strangely enough when someone hears I have a book out and a successful web site they start becoming very friendly! Such is life!

Don’t always see a situation as always what YOU can get out of it. Think of it as want you can give to it. It’s better for you in the long run because if you always take, people will eventually be fed up with you and you lose friends or are talked about behind your back. Negativity also gives most people with any morals a kind of mental karma. Think about it. A guy is in the pub, he knocks your pint. For no reason you go off on a four word holiday, perhaps even get into a fight. Now what happens? Most human beings would go home and then every knock on the door, every car pulling up outside it trouble. You get paranoid, nervous, and anxious. If you would have been positive and simply been man enough to say “no problem mate” then you would be at home fine and dandy. Unless of course you let your ego torture you for not doing more which is again a negative trap. You can never go to that pub again with your stomach feeling light, not without some time passing. Some people can, even search out another fight, but this already shows a mind gone too far in one direction and in the long run it all comes around full circle. The middle path is always best.

The world cup sees Manchester Untied fans with Chelsea fans and even Celtic fans stand under the England flag when we are up against another country. Do we do that? We dig at the naturals; we did at the gear users. We dig if they take too little; we dig if they take too much.

I do not dislike bodybuilding, I love bodybuilding, it’s the best sport in the world and I have found many likeminded people. I dislike negative attitudes because it’s such a waste of the huge potential we could all release by working together and nothing ruins our own life and the world around us than negativity. It seems that people are either really nice in bodybuilding or really horrible. It seems that we have two paths that we can go down once we build big muscles.

This is not a new idea and I am not the only one saying it but more can be done.

Of course not everyone is like that, we have some real gems in the sport who want to help and really love the sport and all who are in it (of course we cannot like the people in the sport who are arseholes, but we can try!)

Out of 98% of bodybuilding Forums I have gone onto, 98% of the people simply use it to boost their egos at others expense. In my eagerness to help another bodybuilder I mis-typed a word spelling Caseen instead or Casein (they did not know I had written a best selling bodybuilding book) and one of the moderators, who should behave better and set an example, said sarcastically that he had never heard of that protein, of course he knew what I was referring to but I was answering questions that he probably felt he should be, and by the way he answers them incorrectly most of them time and even e-mails this site incognito for answers to questions on his forum! He gave no answer to the question or any help offered. How many times is this happening to bodybuilders wanting help?

So let’s do our bit. Help out the newcomers and others that come for help. Make them welcome. This is the greatest sport on earth, lets show them that those that follow it are of the best calibre. Then we will raise our sport to new heights. I am doing my part with this site and with the book. I answer hundreds of e-mails a month from bodybuilding all over the world for free. I run the site at my own expense. The people who help and contribute do so for free.

If someone is negative or criticizes you for no good reason then leave them behind. Find a new forum, a new web site, a new gym if need be. Or better still if you have the talent to do so, try and change these attitudes slowly yourself. Then these infected places will become healthy and productive. So this is the revolution! Lets make bodybuilding the best sport on earth filled with strong minded, well mannered men and women, all working together for the common cause of reaching our full potential. The only limit to where we could take ourselves and the sport is our imagination and determination. It will change it for the better for ever!