Posted by Anthony Roberts on September 9, 2009

T-Muscle.com coming under heavy criticism

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T-Muscle/Biotest, a company who I speak extensively about in my new book, has recently been the target of some fairly heavy criticism from multiple sources. T-Bag-Nation started off as an online attempt to replicate the wildly successful print magazine Muscle Media 2000, after the former Editor In Chief, T.C. Luoma, was fired. Prior to starting the site, he was one of the authors/editors behind “Mind and Muscle Power,” a terrible magazine which quickly folded.

In the beginning, Testosterone.net – as it was called back then, had a fairly heavy focus on anabolic steroids. Bruce Kneller, Nelson Montana, and several other authors had all written on the topic extensively for them, and that’s honestly how the site got on my radar. Now, there’s very little information about anabolic steroids, and as a result, I have little reason to go there.

But recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of incoming links to my blog, from a variety of sources, all pointing towards my articles slamming T-Nation (or Tmag, or T-Magnum, or T-Bag, or whatever silly name they’ve changed it to).

TCLUOMA Well, it appears there are several issues at hand, including: a bodybuilding program called “I, Bodybuilder,” and the nutritional supplement attached to the program called”Anaconda,” whether Surge (a Biotest nutritional supplement) is better than chocolate milk (it appears not to be), and finally the dreaded “C” word on the T-Nation forums. (The word is “Censorship” – get your mind out of the gutter). I’ll readily admit that I don’t have a dog in this fight, nor do I care what the T-tards think about these topics, but if you’re reading my blog, I’ll assume you’re interested in my take on the situation.

I’m more interested in the fact that the amount of criticism they’re receiving is both fairly advanced and fairly accurate. I don’t know (or don’t particularly like) the various authors slamming T-Whatever, but it’s pretty clear that their criticisms have been widely republished on the ‘net, and represent a huge affront to the Biotest brand. A lot of it is stuff I’ve already said (which very graciously links back to me, which is always nice). So as a former employee of T-Nation/Muscle/Mag, and as someone who has researched the company, the site owners and authors extensively for Generation S, here are my thoughts….

Some of the claims in the “I, Bodybuilder” program are a bit silly. The owner of the site defines their average member as a 175lb guy who’s in shape. Well, several years ago, I attended a T-Nation seminar and spoke at its authors’ roundtable, and I can tell you that the average T-Man doesn’t even look like he works out. Except for maybe 6-7 people out of the 70 in attendance (discounting authors), you wouldn’t have suspected that any of the T-Men in attendance actually lifted weights. The program isn’t very good, and when you check out the list of site-authors/coaches who are endorsing it, you need to keep in mind that they asked EVERYBODY to endorse it. The people whose names you don’t see endorsing the program are the people who refused, and who not-coincidentally, are also the people who run successful businesses outside of T-ville, and who write for multiple sites and magazines. In other words, the people who endorse the program, are the people who have no choice.

While I’m at it, at least half the “coaches” or “strength coaches” writing for T-Muscle are neither. They’re personal trainers. When I wrote for them, I was in my second undefeated season coaching a collegiate rugby team in the first division. They didn’t call me “coach” Roberts, because that’s not how they wanted to promote me – and I’m even a certified coach, to boot! But the truth was that I was a coach, on the field and in the weight room, actually training a team, while several other “coaches” worked out of a gym with individual clients, following them around with a clipboard. C0ach-my-ass.

As for whether Surge is better than chocolate milk, I’m a lactard anyway. I haven’t had a big glass of milk in years, chocolate or otherwise.

As to their forthcoming supplement called “Anaconda” – I doubt it’s worth the money. I say this mostly because none of their current product line is particularly unique, and they’re all overpriced by $10-15 compared to buying from most other companies. I used Biotest products when they gave them to me for free, and I liked them…but the fact that I don’t use them now is a strong indicator that I don’t feel they’re worth the money (I use Muscle Milk for my protein powder, and Lipo-6 as my fat burner).

Now, onto the idea of censorship on their forums. This is actually very funny, because the site owners (i.e. the people who own Biotest), try to make the site have a “badass” flavor. But the truth is that it has always been pre-moderated, i.e. nothing anyone says will show up on the discussion board until a moderator or staff member approves it. So it’s not just censored (like every discussion board on the ‘net typically is), but it’s actually pre-censored…you won’t even get a chance to say something they don’t like. And of course, what they don’t like is when someone objectively reviews their supplements. And of course, this isn’t to prevent useful and meaningful conversations about articles…actually, about a year ago, T-Muscle “gutted the forums” because nobody wanted to write for them any more…the members were attacking the authors, and it was getting stupid because….well, the membership is mostly stupid. Most of the authors think the membership are at least partially retarded. We made fun of the membership 24/7 when I was writing for the site…they’re not all bad, just 99% of them.

The truth is that their supplements are ok…no better or worse than anything out there, quality-wise. But Honestly, their “Rez-V” (Rezveratrol) is about $10-15 more expensive than other brands, and the same goes for their “Flame Out” (Fish Oil) – they depend on what an internal memo calls an “inflexible market” to sell products to members at far above market value or worth. And no, I’m not joking, I have a copy of this internal document, and that’s EXACTLY what it says.

So again, this is nothing I haven’t said before, and nothing that won’t be said again, but I am pretty interested in the fact that they’re being trashed so widely at this point.