This is my honest opinion:
I believe you can always find your answers in
WWNMD
oh no more initials!!!
More on that down below....
I think the main difference in bodybuilding now vs 1990's and 2000's is
People trained HARD...really HARD in those decades. Everything was done to eke out one more pound of muscle mass in training. Guys got after it, there was alot of heavy slag iron ringing in gyms. Nowadays, I truly believe alot of these new guys dont even like training but they LOVE the look and attention the look gives them. So they dislike the training and dont train very hard but use enormous amounts of drugs to get to a point that the 90's and 2000's guys got with brutal training and less drugs. I was dumbfounded during the Palumbo interview with B.L. where B.L. said "he doesnt even like training, and doesnt even want to train when he is on low drugs because he doesnt feel like it is going to do anything....and then went on to say he is on 3-5 grams of test, something like 1400mg EQ, too much other stuff to name as far as anabolics, and 10IUs pharm grade GH and 16IU's chinese GH. I was listening to that on my cardio walk i take at night and was beyond shocked. And the sad thing is thats a normal mindset for these young guys now. Hate training but want to look like a bodybuilder...so they abuse themselves with the drugs. Man...If i get an injury and cannot train normally for a week I start going stir crazy.
Pro bodybuilding by and large is an even playing field...they all have access to all the same drugs for the most part. Who are the two strongest bodybuilders right now? Dallas Mcpherson and Akim Williams are the two strongest bodybuilders throwing around the most heavy slag iron in the IFBB....Bodybuilders coming back from Dubai keep saying Big Ramy is putting up poundages that are ridiculous (for some reason they dont show this much) but there are videos out there of him toying with 200lb dumbells and etc etc etc...so the 3 heaviest training bodybuilders of the 2010's are also the thickest and most heaviest muscled among their 400 or so counterparts.....who were the heaviest training bodybuilders of the 2000's? Ronnie Coleman, Chris Cormier, (even Jay Cutler trained with incredible heavy weights when he was coming up in size), Johnny Jackson, Branch Warren and some others....well they also happen to be the biggest thickest IFBB pro's of that time period....anyone figuring this out yet?.....who was the heaviest training pro's of the 90's? Yates, Mike Francois, Coleman again....who were the thickest and largest again of the 90's? 80's? Heaviest training bodybuilder? Bertil Fox......he was also the thickest bodybuilder of the 80's.....
So....on an even playing field, heavy training weights results in the largest pros among individuals with elite genetics and the same access of drugs. Again you dont need to be doing triples here....you can do 8 reps, 12 reps, 15 reps, 20 reps as long as its progressive and heavy. Platz build monstrous legs with heavy weights and higher reps, alot of these guys named above were doing sets of 10-12 reps with these heavy weights.
So you observe the above scenarios and put it together for yourself. The more times you can train with progressive poundages for a bodypart and RECOVER in a years time (frequency).....the quicker this whole breakdown remodel breakdown remodel breakdown remodel process will happen. I dont understand why people ever worry about doing enough sets....a guy who goes to the wall and back on two productive exercises for his unique mechanical makeup and unique genetics would destroy a guy who goes in there and does 30 sets on foo foo exercises which dont work for him. There are guys in this very forum who STILL TO THIS FREAKING DAY use the same exercises over and over and over that have PROVEN not to work for themselves. "Its a barbell curl and i must curl it even though Ive done it for 8 years and still have shitty biceps"<---that in itself is the greatest mistake a bodybuilder can make far exceeding "did i do enough sets today?"....Did you beat last times results in your logbook? Yes you did? good. Are you able to recover to be able to train that bodypart again and beat the logbook again next time? Yes? Good now string about 104 of those workouts together over the next year and you will be very happy.
So back to WWNMD....in a side example: people use all these drugs to lose bodyfat and then give out advice to others on how to lose bodyfat without telling them they are using Clen, T3, GH and low dose DNP and they could eat franks and beans 7 times a day and still lose bodyfat. How is that going to help Joe Blow who is not going to be the walking pharmacy you are?
People give all kind of advice on gaining muscle mass, but forget to tell the person they are giving advice to about the 3 grams of test, 12ius of gh, 1000mg tren, and the other 2 anabolics and one oral they are boatloading. <---You could do the sloppiest most unproductive workouts with a newbie bodybuilder and gain muscle mass with those drugs.
So the telltale answer is this. WWNMD (What would natural me do)...answer that question and it will give anyone the best possible answers of what to do when enhanced. What would natural me do to diet down and get in shape....<---you figure that out and all the trials, tribulations and problems that come about when you are trying to get into incredible shape NATURALLY....youll be right on the money when you do use the drugs.
WWNMD to get big? What would natural me do to gain size. Ill tell you what can be thrown out the window...all the freaking foo foo exercises and bullshit that is being bandied about nowadays by people trying to create some kind of separating niche as a trainer...thats for sure. Heavy progressive weights in key productive exercises would have to be used by "Natural You"....to get larger. Want to see exercises like one handed reverse tricep pushdowns get thrown into a wastebasket? Hypothetical situation: Billionaire approaches the natural you and says Ill give you 10 million dollars if you can put an inch of muscle on your arms in the next year (youll be drug tested, DEXAed regularly).....all the foo foo exercises would be thrown into the wastebasket and a person would be grinding out dips, close grip bench presses, EZ bar extensions etc etc etc trying to get that 10 million dollars.....and they would do it with two things in mind...How can i train the most frequently to gain muscle mass and how can i recover to train frequently to get this 10 million dollars.
WWNMD can give a person all the right answers as to what to do while actually using drugs....its brutally hard to gain muscle mass clean....simple observation will tell you the thickest most densely muscle natural guys train heavy for reps....the natural bodybuilders who dont gain muscle? You see them in every gym in the world every single day....they are the 95% of gym goers who go and never make an iota of a muscle gains and look the same today as they did 5-10 years ago when you used to say "hi" to them then also. Thats unsuccessful natural bodybuilders. Comfort Zone bodybuilders.