The workouts are still good, but everything else is craptacular. I subscribed for a 2 year and now I regret it (8 months in). The editor sucks. It is becoming another Maxim knockoff.
I disagree completely. I love how they have diversified out a little bit. The workout programs are much better than they used to be (they are closer to what is discussed in here)and I find the other sections very useful. What I like about the fashion part is that it is stuff you would actually wear. Its nice to have a magazine that has it all in one. Just my opinion, I certainly respect yours.
IMO MF is a pretty good read. They have a lot of very knowledgable guys on staff...Adam Cambell, Alwnyn Crosgrove, Bill Hartman, John Berardi, John Willimas(Johnka)to name a few. I was impressed with the Westside BB workout the published recently too.
Well, I miss most of the workout tips and diet tips they once had. I liked Bill's rehab column but its nowhere to be found this month.
This month's Carmen Electra spread/interview could be totally cut, as could most of the clothing. I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in looking at pictures of %500 - $800 jackets.
I'd rather see more about fitness, nutrition, cooking, etc and less about video games, music, girls, clothing, and sex tips. I can get that in any other magazine.
The only reason I subscribe to Mens Fitness is for the fitness aspect of it. I feel like that's 10% of the magazine, when it used to be 75%.
Kmfisher - For the record, I agree completely. For a time it was as good as any fitness magazine I've come across. Now it's full of interviews with porn stars and penthouse pets.
I still like the actual fitness stuff that's in there, it's just that it's hard to look past all the junk. I'm thinking of canceling my subscription.
Originally posted by RipStone: IMO MF is a pretty good read. They have a lot of very knowledgable guys on staff...Adam Cambell, Alwnyn Crosgrove, Bill Hartman, John Berardi, John Willimas(Johnka)to name a few. I was impressed with the Westside BB workout the published recently too.
I agree that those people are some good contributors to the mag, but their articles equal about 4-5% of the entire mag(if that much).
I also am not a big fan of the magazine, but I don't like MH either. I miss MH Muscle when Lou was the editor. But he left and now it sucks too.
Now I feel like I am the only person not on steroids that reads M&F.
Originally posted by kmfisher: Well, I miss most of the workout tips and diet tips they once had. I liked Bill's rehab column but its nowhere to be found this month.
I noticed a substantial improvement in MF quality of the past few years followed by a more recent (within the past few months) trend to look more like MH (too many gadgets, clothes, etc). It's upsetting because they really start to live up to their name for a while there.
Its still a pretty good magazine but they could really loose the porn chicks telling me how to have sex with my wife. I mean really sex advice from a girl who gets paid thousands to fake it on camera seems kinda pointless to me.they could find a better use for the space. If I wanted that Id just buy a porno mag or movie.
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Originally posted by RipStone: IMO MF is a pretty good read. They have a lot of very knowledgable guys on staff...Adam Cambell, Alwnyn Crosgrove, Bill Hartman, John Berardi, John Willimas(Johnka)to name a few. I was impressed with the Westside BB workout the published recently too.
I agree with you Rip. The names above are enough of a reason for me to still have my subscription. I also enjoy the branching out into different areas. I suppose I could have my arm twisted into liking the Carmen Electra cover.
I also get Men's Health but have been increasingly disappointed with their product. I miss Lou being there.
I used to get Muscle and Fitness but like Marine said, it's sooooo directed at the 'roid crowd now or at least that's how it seems. Almost heading in the direction of Flex. I gave up on M&F about a year or so back.
a agree with most everyone. I picked up last months issue or mabey the one before that. Way too much...non fitness...stuff. Didn't buy it for clothes, gadgets, and hair do's.
one article stuck out...stating that you needed to pr every week. I'm assuming that he meant another rep\set\lbs every week, but it kind of read more along the lines of a single rep PR. I could hear barbells dropping on foreheads all across the nation.
As said, the fitness articles are great - they've got a number of excellent writers.
Having said that, I stopped subscribing a while back, once they tried to match Maxim (IMHO) and the like with all the porn sex/frat sex, etc. articles. I think the mag tried to expand beyond its area of expertise.
And I never used to have to flip through ten pages of ads just to get to the table of contents...
I still check out the website regularly for the fitness articles, tho...
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It all depends on what you want to read, which is probably related to how old you are, and then on your relationship status. The target demographic of that mag must be the 18-28 year old. Contemporary, hip, clothing and sex tips for your girlfriend or dating tips don't cut it for a 35+ year old who is married. If I dressed like that my peers would think I'm having a mid life crisis; if I tried any of the sex tips with my wife, she'd laugh at me, or at least ask me what magazine I pulled that out of.
In my opinion the magazines cater to a totally different crowd even without the Maxim wanna-be crap.
I have seen the following layout several times: Which lunch is healthier, the Whopper value meal or the bacon cheeseburer value meal? 2,500cal 20 gram sat fat vs. 2,600cal 22 gram sat fat.
In my life both of those are no win situations. Those kinds of articles are making someone feel like they are making a better choice by picking the whopper at lunch, when in actuality they are both crap.
I hate to see pages with stuff like that. It's a waste of my 1.2 seconds it takes me to look at it before I turn the page.
Like I heard someone on here say before, I want my 1.2 seconds of life back.
I have continued my subscription to MF. It's so cheap, why not???
I still think the workout content is generally good, as well as most of the nutritional info. (aside from the fast food nonsense that MWE mentioned).
The fashion stuff is easy to overlook, although I don't agree that MF is giving real world fashion tips. Who in the hell is buying $2000 jackets and $700 shoes, etc.??
My wife has to rag on me about the covers every month with the headlines about sex tips, Carmen Electra, etc. She used to laugh about the cover models looking "gay," but lately she has been more into chuckling over the sex advice.
We all have to realize that our opinions are pretty biased. We are pretty educated on nutrition and lifting and can see how ridiculous comparing fast food items to see which one is "healthier" is. For the general public though, MF has to be pretty appealing and of course that is who MF is aimed at....not the hardcore fitness enthusiast. It's sad, but true.
I agree Ripstone, but that's part of my point. There is no magazine that caters to guys like us. The closest thing was MH Muscle, which only lasted for two issues with content we would prefer. I would guess that we are not a large enough market to profit from when it comes to magazines.
I think that's why JP's forum is so important. If it weren't for this place, I would be eating a Whopper value meal everyday for lunch, working out and wondering why I wasn't losing any weight.
Good discussion. The magazine still has some good information (I would hope, since they're still running my recipes), but I also don't care for the recent trend towards skank.
I got my dad a subscription last year so he could see the Neanderthal article that Lou and I wrote. He said he liked our article, but then he asked me why I was publishing in a porno mag.
There is, however, good information tucked between the silicone and panties.
There trend of putting skank on the cover, initially in a small box on the cover, and now as the feature cover model (can they make Carmen Electra look worse?) has made my wife make me take it off of the family room coffee table because it does start resembling a porno mag.
If Adam is back at MH, maybe it's time to begin a new subscription. Whadya think Lou?
I still enjoy reading both mags. I wish there was less crap and more substance.
I still hold out hope that MH Muscle can recover, but the last issue was practically a clone of MH, with reprints of a lot of old articles and some tips on how to shave your head.
I agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed in this discussion. I do enjoy the fitness articles in MF, and it is so damn cheap I ask myself, why not subscribe?
I do get annoyed at the clothing ideas that they have. My entire wardrobe didn't cost as much as a leather jacket shown in the mag.
I also get annoyed at the skanks on the cover. My wife is pretty cool, and she doesn't care, but I feel like a perve keeping the magazine laying around the house. I really hate the relationship advice in the magazines (especially MH's Girl Next Door). My wife loves reading those articles for a good laugh. Why would a happily married guy take the advice of a non-married woman who is in her 30's.
I'd pay more than that just for Bill's column, Craig's workout or Alwyn's column. (met Alwyn in NYC this weekend at the IDEA Personal Trainer Conference).
Last month they had a good article by Jim Wendler from Elite.
Even at full price it's still under $5. It's not a lot of money. For a workout written by one of those guys, $5 is worth it.
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