Just for a laugh I decided to watch Escape From New York. Keith Russell is the resident badass. By today's standards- those outlined here- his well-proportioned, strong body is a "before" photo. That of course is the whole point.

We all operate out of our personal reference points. So here's mine: I've been a serious body builder for 47 years. At 68 I have 9% body fat, seriously good guns and am in superb shape. I’m 5'8.5" and 125 lbs. Not bad for nearly seventy. After all those intense years I never once looked anything like the folks today. At one point I had bulked up to 160, but the look was too masculine for me and I didn't compete. I recall the original Ms Olympians, when steroid use was in its first years among women pros. Those bodies became more and more masculine, over-developed and grotesque to my eye. That is a personal preference. I don't deny the work ethic. I do argue against the cost to the organs. My BF met a few of the country's top body builders barely a week before they died, both times of drug abuse. Die young, nice corpse. What you write here was true thirty years ago. Hollywood was about to fall madly in love with Arnold, and that was the beginning of the ‘roided heroes era. Nobody prior to the Conan movies looked anything like that, and since then what sells is what's fake, CG and pure bullshit. I used to like Mark Wahlberg until he started selling his own bullshit supplements. I used to like a lot of people until they started selling bullshit supplements. While you summarized the fitness industry, there isn't anything you have outlined here that doesn't apply pretty much across the board: weight loss, beauty, silicone muscle supplements, erectile dysfunction, everything. Just everything. That is as much a statement about our ridiculous gullibility as anything else.

I agree that Men's Health is a joke. So are all the ads about getting so-and-so's guns or lats or abs. Body type has a lot to do with what's possible. You can supplement, but as with so many NFL players, what happens when you quit?

People don't want to do the work, Daniel. If you read Brad Stulberg's recent attack on our hack culture, it's just an outgrowth of the same thing. We want the look, we want to appear like super man but we simply do not wish to do the real work to get there. And "there" is driven in part, as you say, by genetics. We can improve what we have but a 5'4" man is not going to be Arnold.

My BF was an all-natural pro. Neither one of us would dream of using growth hormone (the distressing side effect of which is that it also grows cancer cells) or any PED. Work, proper food, proper rest and sleep. This chicken, broccoli and rice party line is breathtaking bullshit served on a very expensive platter.

But as long as the public laps it up, it will be served, and we will end up with what our idiocy deserves: ruined health, empty bank accounts.

Meanwhile, this aging bodybuilder will keep right on hitting the iron, doing the work, and enjoying the strength and longevity that common sense workouts and eating plans deliver.