Reviews For Muscle & Fitness Magazine

Like many other reviews have pointed out, this magazine has A LOT of ads, some of which attempt to pass themselves off as articles but are clearly labeled "4 page advertising supplement." If you don't mind skipping past all of that junk, there are some good exercise and nutrition tips here and there. I still consider myself a beginner, so perhaps the magazine is more worthwhile for me than someone who has been lifting for 10+ years. Though it's true that the magazine has features on the same body parts over and over, I'm not sure what anyone who is critical of that expects. Should the magazine instead have a feature devoted to exercising your facial muscles? Of course an exercise magazine is going to be repetitive in terms of body parts covered because we have limited body parts to exercise.



One of the things I like about this magazine is that aside from the one "pin up girl" per issue, the magazine really is devoted to muscle and fitness. Some other magazines in this genre are too similar to Playboy to be taken seriously; I don't want to read articles about sex in a bodybuilding magazine. M&F also seems to keep their images of men as neutral as possible, showing the reader the models' musculature without adding anything to make the poses more sexual. (Some other magazines, I've noticed, will show models tugging on their shorts or other such things, making them appear to be stripping and not posing to show off their musculature.) Obviously sex-laden bodybuilding magazines have their fans, but it's nice that, for the most part, M&F's editorial content focuses on the sport itself and not provocative pictures of women or men.

This is how a subscription to muscle and fitness will go: Issue 1 -- building a massive chest, Issue 2 -- the secret to huge biceps, Issue 3 - the secret to a massive chest, etc., ad nauseam. And, every other issue or so will treat some issue about weight training and bedroom performance. If this is what you are after, this magazine might be for you. But don't expect much in the way of cutting-edge science or research. Lift weights. Buy our supplements. Get bigger.

It seems like every other ad is pushing some new, state-of-the-art supplement that will give you the results of anabolic steroids without any of the adverse health effects. The before and after shots are a riot. The worst was a user that was soft and bloated on day 1; on day 3 he was well defined and cut, with a great tan to match!

Ultimately, the only way this magazine is going to help you is if looking at grotesque, chemically-enhanced physiques with sprayed-on sweat motivates you. Personally, I would be happy if I could build the muscle mass of some of the women bodybuilders featured in the magazine. (I could use the manly jaw line, too.)

First off I suscribe to the Magazine. I personally Enjoy reading it. I agree there are alot of advertisments, but this is a commerical publication and has about the same ad as other magazines.
Now, This Magazine is not for Beginers, Or Novices, For people who focus soley on Natural bodybuilding, Nor Is it for Athletes who competively plays sports. This Magazine focuses On a specific demographic- Powerlifter, Bodybuilders and enthusists Of the sport/art. It also focues and reaching goals through legal supplements and drinks. The excerises and routines In the magazine, or geared towards people with intermediate to advance knowledge of lifting.
I DO NOT recommend this magazine for anyone starting out or wants a natural path to bodybuilding. I DO recommend this for those individuals who are competitvely bdoy building and those who have a good base of knnowledge on Lifting

I subscribed to Muscle and Fitness Hers and really enjoyed a weighlifting magazine geared toward women. When they discontinued it was with the promise we'd get plenty of articles of our own in Muscle and Fitness. But this magazine has turned into one large ad. The articles are still useful, but there are too many ads now and not enough tips and advice for women bodybuilders.

The pictures are nice, the show results current; but the information and products are as dated as Joe and Ben, themselves.

I've subscribed several years but now want something different. Because I work for a living and can't plan 6 meals a day and hours in the gym like these guys/gals do-I want a fitness magazine tailored to the working man, not the gym guy without a job guy. Also, it seems like a lot of this magazine is advertising for protein powders and supplements.
If you don't have a job, plan on spending your daily routines around the gym so you can get big and grotesque like these fitness models, then this is the magazine for you.

I have been reading this mag off and on for the past 20 years. As other reviews have said, I think I am just reading the same tired old stuff from three or four issues ago. "Big Guns!" "Huge Chest!" "Massive Gains!" These seem to be the ones you'll see featured about every other month in here. As for adds? Don't get me started on adds! When half of your magazine is adds, it spells trouble. Not only that, they need to specify to people who may not already know, "This mag's training tips are for people who do not work for a living and can spend 6-8 hours a day in the gym, eat 8-10 meals a day and spend MASSIVE amounts of cash on supplements." In other words, people with no real responsibilities other than taking care of their physiques (Which as far as jobs go, that's a great one to have). I teach all day and into the night, literally, for me to eat and train like they require, I'd have to quit my day job, sell my kids into slavery, and become a homeless person. In which case I'd have no money to have a gym membership. I think you get the idea.

On the positive side, the photos are awe-inspiring. Also, to be realistic, it's a mag that has been around for decades upon decades. How many different ways can you say, "Lift heavy, eat like a horse, and train like you have no other responsibilities in life"? It just becomes repetitive any way you slice it. My recommendation would be to buy an issue or two every decade or so. Buy January's "BIG GUNS" issue, and then February's "HUGE CHEST". Then wait a decade and repeat.

Good luck!

Since the recent decline of Men's Fitness, there really isnt't a reliable, realistic montly men's workout magazine. I picked up a copy of Muscle and Fitness, just for some workout tips and ideas, as I remembered when I read the magazine in the 80's that it was quite good.
Now it's quite full of ads.
From the same 4 or 5 companies.
As an experiment I ripped out every page in the the magazine that had ads on both sides. I ended up ripping out 90 pages.
90 pages!
Out of a magazine with 266 pages.
A full one third of this magazine is ads that fool people into taking crappy, expensive supplements so that they will end up looking like Ahnold (who has joined the magazine as Executive Editor).
You'd be better off by picking up one book for workout (like Body Sculping For Men or Women), one book for nutrition (like Eat to Live by Fuhrman) and save your money and your time.
You get a great looking body by eating healthy and working out regularly, not by gulping down supplements popping pills.

I can only say, that I agree with some of the reviews referencing issues of M&F from years past. In my case, the late 80's and early 90's, cover to cover, nothing but tons of information, informative articles, cooking tips, exercise tips and routines, fewer ads and most importantly, it was inspirational!

I was always looking forward to reading the first few pages of this magazine, despite the fact that at the time I did not even know how to read, write or speak english.

It would take me hours to read and understand the articles, because I had to use an English / Spanish dictionary to understand everything and I use to pay a premium to have these shipped to me in Mexico! This is how good it used to be!

I picked one of these magazines the other day and my God, how its changed! It lacks the inspiration, magic and truthfulness that it once had! Now, it looks more like a MuscleTech brochure!

I am giving it two stars, just because if you look past the ads, there is still some good information, but definitely not as much nor as great as before and certainly, not worth a subscription.

This magazine is NOT a source of reliable info for the serious weight trainee. I've been a hardcore bodybuilder/powerlifter for most of my life and I've been appalled by the number of ppl who've bought and followed the routines in this magazine and have got toally frustrated with their lack of results. Some of them have even given up weight training totally.
Remember first and foremost that most of the articles claimed to have been written by a top bodybuilder are actually ghost written by in-house staff writers. Also none of the champs in the suplement ads actually take the supplements they advertise. They are just paid to do so. All of them are on copious amounts of steroids and are very geentically gifted. They are not role models for average people. However, average people can build an impressive physique and a high level of strength IF the correct approach is followed(like myself). Sadly, these are NOT the methods promoted in this magazine. The magazine is just focused on selling suplements which are useless for the most part.
If you are really interested in building a lot of muscle mass and strength to match then please read books by authors like Mike Mentzer, Stuart McRobert and Matt Bryzcki which are all available from this site, and save yourself years of frustration and start getting the results you deserve.