Are You a Bodybuilder?

Training Bodybuilding
21

After lifting seriously for about 4 years I would finally call myself a bodybuilder as of last year. I worked/went to school/ and went to the gym, that was it. I competed in two competitions last year and felt honored to finally be called a bodybuilder. People now introduce me as a bodybuilder. I too have had to work very hard to look the part. With my height my clothes would hide everything and sometime still do.

I was working out in fullerton at a 24 hr fitness and at Milos Sarcev’s Koloseum gym. That gym is bodybuilding. As much so as the Golds gym in venice where I have been lucky enough to grace it’s weights. Just before last year was the beginning to the end of my party days, etc. I still find it hard being 20 when most of my friends are out drinking and doing drugs. I still go out but don’t drink or do anything anymore. Health and physique are the number 1 priority. This is when you become a bodybuilder.

When it becomes such a priority in your life that you’d rather do nothing more. The burn of the reps in your exercises bring pleasure to you because you know you are getting stronger. you have to force yourself to take days off. It’s easier to overtrain because you love the gym soo much. That is a bodybuilder. I’m missing a week long trip to cabo san lucas this summer just because I don’t want to take 7 days off from the gym and eat crap and probably drink beer when I’m down there. Say we are competing in a bodybuilding show down there and I’d gladly go. I’d like to call myself a bodybuilder but only our trusted peers can give us that title when we truly deserve it. lol

Joe Brook you complete me! lol Just kiddin dood… this is like the 3rd post of yours I’ve read that motivates me to go to the gym right now! lol

Gerdy

22

[quote]Professor X wrote:
eigieinhamr wrote:
You’re not a bodybuilder until you compete

Then what do you call the many people who compete BEFORE they’ve built their bodies up?[/quote]

A failure?

23

[quote]derek wrote:
[/quote]

LOL!

24

[quote]TRAJJ wrote:
I would suppose it would depend upon the definitions for BB that we use. As some have mentioned above, it is for size, muscle mass, strength, lower BF, symmetry, athletic purposes etc.

The definition may depend on the goal as well.

Also think of it this way; the term is body BUILDER not body built. Some fear calling themselves a BB until X is achieved. That isn’t right. That 16 year old 120lbs kid that makes the decision to get serious and start training is just as much a BB as the pro that walks out on stage. BB is a journey as well as a destination. The kid and the pro are just a different points on the BB path. This isn’t meant to be all philosophical, I just see some worried that they’re not yet ‘big’ enough to use the term. If you’re serious, and your training…you’re a BB.

Just a thought[/quote]

But then look at what eigieinhamr says just below your post! He believes in being a body-built!

I am in the middle, i think people need to know you are something without you saying for you to call yourself something, like - you wouldn’t give yourself a nickname would you? Others do that for you (and if you desperately want one as a kid, but none of your unimaginative friends come up with a name for you - you can start writing the nickname of your choice behind bus-shelters… Ahem).
Plus i would’t call myself a musician if i had started to get all the instruments but hadnt actually composed shit…
Nor if i had composed just one track, taped and listened to by just me. Only when i had a collection of tracks and many of my friends - at LEAST, had heard my music, maybe just at my house, but most knew i composed, just as one of those things people “know”.

As someone who bodybuilds, i expect people to be able to tell i do before i feel comfortable enough to have earned the right to call my self one… Just my opinion.

I understand many peoples adversion to the “style” or whatever of it though, the vanity mostly, the trunks, the tan… so “dream-boy” vain gay shit… But over the years, i have come to like that side too… i will choose 1950’s style trunks when i compete i think! Plus getting tanned up- its like a war paint going into battle… maybe its just me, maybe i am designed to be a generic bodybuilder and not shy away from the competitive side of it.

As for being a bodybuilder when you compete, i kinda agree also. At that point, you can truly call yourself a bodybuilder.

Thanks to everyone for their insights, and respect to all you strength training athletes, bodybuilders, sportsmen and health freaks… Do we have any girls here…? I think my Cyp is kicking in…

Joe

25

[quote]Professor X wrote:
eigieinhamr wrote:
You’re not a bodybuilder until you compete

Then what do you call the many people who compete BEFORE they’ve built their bodies up?[/quote]

Yeah, i have a copy of Beef a competetition mag, and inside there is this guy who is a skinny fat guy - y’know? and he has not lifted anything heavier than a burger to his face!

He is on stage and got second place!!! Simply due to the performance! (feel for the guy who trained, dieted, posed, tanned and got 2nd!)

Is he a bodybuilder? I think not… has he entered a competition? (and won) Yep.

Joe

26

Nope! I’m not, never will be.

27

Why? Don’t want to?

28

I’ve been trying to search for the article which I agree with the position on. I think it’s written by Dan John. Says something like You’re not a bodybuilder until you compete as a bodybuilder, and you’re not a powerlifter until you compete in a meet. Can anyone remember what it was called?

29

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1535867

30

And what does that prove? It proves Cressey’s opinion thats all!

31

Wasn’t trying to prove anything, I was just pointing out where someone said what I thought more articulately than myself

32

[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
You aren’t a bodybuilder unless you’ve competed in a bodybuilding show. Until you do, you’re just a guy (or girl) who lifts weights. I lifted heavy stuff for years before I became a powerlifter. I jumped over a puddle this morning, but that didn’t make me a long-jumper.[/quote]

For people too lazy to look

33

[quote]eigieinhamr wrote:
Eric Cressey wrote:
You aren’t a bodybuilder unless you’ve competed in a bodybuilding show. Until you do, you’re just a guy (or girl) who lifts weights. I lifted heavy stuff for years before I became a powerlifter. I jumped over a puddle this morning, but that didn’t make me a long-jumper.

For people too lazy to look[/quote]

…and I strongly disagree. Powerlifting is based on total amount lifted. The only way that can be proven is through a legit competition. Bodybuilding is not the same. You prove that by the progress you have made. Your effort is solely based on what you do in the gym before you ever get to that stage. Your presence on stage is just showing off what you spent years building under heavy weights. Whether you compete or not, your effort is worn by you all day every day. Everyone looking at you can tell your effort without you ever jumping into a judged competition. Ronnie Coleman would be a bodybuilder whether he ever competed or not. You would know it just by looking at him. It is a little ridiculous to think someone would claim he isn’t one if he never competed while looking like that. If some guy has 20" arms and a 53" chest, he has built his body to proportions that most humans will never reach. I do believe that earns the title whether oiled up or not.

Powerlifting is nothing like that. No one can tell by looking at you exactly how much you can lift. They CAN tell whether you have built a shit load of muscle, however.

Let me also say I can’t stand it when someone digs up some author’s random opinion and uses that like it carries so much weight that no one dare oppose it. That is simply his opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. If he chooses to jump into this thread, I would repeat the same directly to him. I would expect as much from someone who is a powerlifter considering that is the perspective he sees his own progress from.

If I want an opinion about bodybuilders, I will ask other bodybuilders.

34

[quote]TRAJJ wrote:
I would suppose it would depend upon the definitions for BB that we use. As some have mentioned above, it is for size, muscle mass, strength, lower BF, symmetry, athletic purposes etc.

The definition may depend on the goal as well.

Also think of it this way; the term is body BUILDER not body built. Some fear calling themselves a BB until X is achieved. That isn’t right. That 16 year old 120lbs kid that makes the decision to get serious and start training is just as much a BB as the pro that walks out on stage. BB is a journey as well as a destination. The kid and the pro are just a different points on the BB path. This isn’t meant to be all philosophical, I just see some worried that they’re not yet ‘big’ enough to use the term. If you’re serious, and your training…you’re a BB.

Just a thought[/quote]

I love it!

35

what?

36

[quote]BigKDawg wrote:
Bodybuilder? No I dont consider myself that… a hardcore seeker of unadultered strength, speed and power, most definetly. Everyone got their own priorities but being “swole” isnt exactly my number #1 goal. Improving body composistion and becoming overall more mobile and athletic are high on my list of areas to work on.[/quote]

My goals as well. I want to be a stronger, faster, and more explosive human being. Whatever shape my body takes when I am at my best in those areas is the ideal body for me.

37

There seems to be a few guys here that can’t understand that bodybuilding cannot be directly compared to other competitive sports, or not very acurately anyway.

I think in many sports, one needs to compete in order to call yourself a [fill in the blank].

For some time, I trained “like” a powerlifter but was not one because I never competed against another person or my own PR’s “officially”.

I have competed in two Highland Games and would NEVER have called myself a competitior until I threw my first implement in official competition. And even now, with only two 'Games under my belt, I find it weird to call myself a HG competitor but technically I am.

I find bodybuilding to be like X said. You are to be judged by results, not by formal competition, not from the amount of body oil you buy, not by your flawless posing routine.

I guess many of us can be called “aspiring” bodybuilders which is dependant on the difference between our starting muscular size and our current muscular size. Of course that leads to all kinds of debate such as how much muscle added can set the limit as to what you can call legitimally yourself.

I actually need to rethink some of my previous posts. I started training many years ago with bodybuilding competition in mind. I then got turned off (wrongly) by “bodybuilders” beause of the stigma associated with what we saw in FLEX Magazine. I became interested in strength sports and got “bigger” and stronger but not necessarily “better”.

I then dieted down, did lots of bodyweight exercises, sprints, conditioning work etc. and lost over 40 lbs. Now I have a renewed interest in the best that bodybuilding has to offer (again) but am at a place where I personally don’t think I look like a bodybuilder especially when fully dressed. The people around me will disagree but it’s what I think that counts the most to me.

38

[quote]TRAJJ wrote:
I would suppose it would depend upon the definitions for BB that we use. As some have mentioned above, it is for size, muscle mass, strength, lower BF, symmetry, athletic purposes etc.

The definition may depend on the goal as well.

Also think of it this way; the term is body BUILDER not body built. Some fear calling themselves a BB until X is achieved. That isn’t right. That 16 year old 120lbs kid that makes the decision to get serious and start training is just as much a BB as the pro that walks out on stage. BB is a journey as well as a destination. The kid and the pro are just a different points on the BB path. This isn’t meant to be all philosophical, I just see some worried that they’re not yet ‘big’ enough to use the term. If you’re serious, and your training…you’re a BB.

Just a thought[/quote]

Great post!! This is EXACTLY how I feel about the subject. One of my girlfriend’s friends asked why I took supplements and drank so many of my meals, and “why is he doing the V-diet?..Does he think he’s a bodybuilder?” Well yeah, I guess I do.

Do I look like I’m preparing for a contest?..NO; But I’ve made dramatic changes in my eating, exercise, and lifestyle habits and it shows. I have been building a better body than the one I had…the process is ongoing and I’m sure in another year, I will look more like a body builder than I do currently. I have no illusions of ever stepping on stage. I simply want to build a large, muscular, well shaped body under 15%bf…in the words of Chris Shugart “I wanna look good nekkid”.

The side benefit of this is looking like I can “take care of business”. I work security in a state run secure mental hospital on the highest control unit. I have definitely noticed more ‘respect’ from the patients as I’ve transitioned from a lard ass to a well muscled lard ass…lol.

39

This thread is pathetic, especially when X has to come on here and define what a damn bodybuilder is.

One more example of how clueless people are here.

40

I dont think so, i just think its a shame when people are simply giving their opinions on something, someone like YOU has to post a comment like that.

Professor X wasn’t defining what a bodybuilder is because anyone needed him to do so, he was simply giving an opinion, on what turned out to be a debate. Thats how i take it.

If you don’t like it… well.

Joe