Finally got around to checking out an issue today.
The guy on the cover looks buff all right, unlike many natural
bodybuilders who look like slim dudes with some muscle. As a matter
of fact, a lot of these natural bodybuilders are funny-looking, with
big heads and slim physiques. Interestingly, some of their
championship trophies model a steroid-addled physique!
Main thing I noticed is that these naturals have legs almost
comparable to the junkies, with the teardrop sweep and all that --
though nowhere near as huge, striated, or "freaky" -- but the
arms...my God, the arms are sorely lacking!
Their arms are the arms drug-addled female bodybuilders have, only
even less thick! Looking at only the silhouette of these naturals,
you could tell they're naturals because of the big heads, relative to
the rest of their bodies, and because of the arms, which are rather
slim!
I wonder what it is about steroids that seems to really beef up the
arms...???
Speaking of appearances, the cover guy looks great on the cover, but
inside, in the one-page story on him (a one-page cover story?!), the
accompanying photograph, in which he does a different pose, clearly
mark him out as a natural -- namely, the "big" head. Which, of
course, only looks big in comparison to the druggies who pump up their
muscles with steroids. But it was interesting to see how naturals,
even more than juicin' junkies, illustrate that bodybuilding is first
and foremost about illusion: a different pose, a different angle, and
the cover guy, who's a top-seeded star ("The Next Arnold"), turns out
to be just another college athlete lookalike!
Anyway, as for the rest of the magazine, it's a very interesting
issue, and I just might subscribe, finally, to a bodybuilding
magazine, depending on how the next few issues turn out! This month,
they have the usual articles on training -- almost like usenet posts,
actually, in how general they are -- and there's even a feature on the
drug-testing protocols of naturals, which I found very interesting
indeed. Alas, another 30% of the magazine is devoted to typical
"industry gossip," though it reads more like a local congregation's
newsletter than a Teen People column (i.e., friendly and familiar, not
sophomoric and redundant).
A bit weird that they have the same phony supplement ads like the
"mainstream" bodybuilding mags, though MuscleTech was sensitive enough
to use two natural bodybuilders in at least one of them! It also
caught my eye that the magazine ran that ubiquitous legalsteroids.com
multi-page, but ad revenue is ad revenue, naturally (lame pun
intended).
None of those annoying subscription cards that fall out and litter the
place, thankfully, though only one little 3x4 ad calling for
subscribers!
One last thing: the females look much better than the junkies -- they
actually look like females! -- though still just a bit too skinny for
my tastes. WTF is with this ten-inch "Ethiopian arm" look that's so
fashionable???
"Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness" Magazine 
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