“MuscleNow™”
Rating: 
Author: Francesco Castano
Recommended For:
Beginner-Advanced
Price: $237
Format: E-Book (Electronic Delivery)
| Skip down to the “Bottom Line” |
The first thing you’ll note about Francesco Castano’s “Musclenow™” is that it has a pretty large price tag in comparison to its competitors.
With that price tag, it is only logical to have higher expectations for it.
The second thing that is made clear on the sales page is that Castano is anti-supplement – all supplements. He dedicates a lot of space trying to debunk all evidence that might suggest taking a position a little less confining.
Now, I’m in agreement that the majority of muscle building supplements are a waste of time and money. The few that do have some value are definitely over-hyped and consequently over-valued by trainers. I’m fine with someone advising the avoidance of supplements. At most, they will offer you a small boost. No one makes incredible gains due solely to supplement use.
My problem is this… Castano tells you that the supplement companies exaggerate the abilities of their products to get at your wallet. Absolutely true. But then he turns around and misrepresents their ineffectiveness in order to convince you to instead spend your money on his product?
What is the difference? Both are misrepresentations.
Castano represents the reasoning for taking creatine as “the slight water retention (not muscle!) in SOME.” Yes, creatine supplementation can increase weight by drawing water into the muscle cell. However, that isn’t the reason the vast majority of users supplement with creatine. It is a misrepresentation, one you would expect to get from a lazy mainstream media, but from a bodybuilding expert?
Anyway, that is what I was thinking before even receiving the program…
The book starts out with training. Castano provides 4 workout variations to choose from, one each for 3, 4 or 5 days in the gym and a condensed 3-day a week. He recommends the 5 day plan. The basic plan is to vary volume to prevent adaptation and maximize muscle growth.
“Musclenow™” presents a solid plan, one that puts the focus on compound exercises and keeps an eye on overtraining. Castano does a good job of explaining it. There are no pictures accompanying the exercise descriptions which would be beneficial for the beginner.
The diet advice is out of the norm in that it has you focusing only on your protein and carb intake while ignoring your fat intake. In my opinion and experience, this is wrong as fats can have a positive impact on muscle building hormone production. Francesco Castano is anti-fat, taking the stance that fat calories will disproportionately increase your body fat. I’m not in agreement that it is so simplistic.
There are many minor things within the program that I whole-heartedly disagree with but, overall, there is decent muscle building strategy here. At first glance, I would question the organization – it relies a lot on a Q&A format. But it isn’t really a bad read as muscle building programs go.
Castano isn’t overly wordy and writes with passion. He gets his points across quickly.
He is a knowledgeable guy when it comes to bodybuilding. I just think he would be a better trainer if he spent more time looking at the legitimate research and examining the experiences of others rather than spending so much time carving his own unique experience and biased opinion into stone.
The program comes in hardcopy which is definitely a plus. However, the type is so small that it is difficult on the eyes (for a couple hundred bucks, can’t I get something I can read without a magnifying glass?). He includes lifetime email consulting and access to a member’s message board. The board isn’t very active but most questions seem to get answered quickly and correctly.
He also includes body fat calipers. I love this bonus. Not long ago, several similar programs offered this as a bonus but most have abandoned it and moved to electronic products. It isn’t that calipers are that expensive (about $10), it is the fact that most trainers will never get them. They can be a very important tool for physique change and actually putting them in the hands of a trainer has value much beyond their retail cost.
The Bottom Line
3 of 5 Stars: Does “MuscleNow™” justify its abnormally high price? No, not in my opinion. I didn’t see the reason for the price. I think there are better programs available with much more affordable price tags. But Castano does give you passion and a unique and credible viewpoint (on most issues, the aforementioned creatine not being one of them)…
So, if price is no object to you, you might find this to be a nice addition to your muscle building library.
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