Bashing of Bodybuilders: Why?

Training Bodybuilding
161

[quote]Protoculture wrote:
Ultimately everything comes down to dollars. Even CT who respects bodybuilding has to keep his physique streamlined if he wants to keep his business up.

That’s just the name of the game.
[/quote]

Sadly this is true. I have about 5x more clients at 210-215 than I did when I was hovering in the 235-250 range. I’m not talking about my former fat 240lbs self either. But rather the only time in my ‘‘post fat boy era’’ that I truly decided to gain a lot of size and went from 215lbs at roughly 6% body fat up to 253lbs at 13-15% or so. I really had a hard time building up a clientele because even the top trainers make 90% of their business training the average Joe and Jane. And these guys are often more keen to hire someone who looks fit and athletic than someone who looks like a pile of muscle. Now, the good thing is that my office is doing well and my clientele base is very strong so I can begin to train for strength and size again. But I have to wear a loose long-sleeve shirt. :slight_smile:

162

[quote]Professor X wrote:
=I would think there is something wrong with someone who works that hard on their body to build that much muscle…but who insists on never showing it in public at all.

Somehow, this is not insecure but they throw that word at every bodybuilder who looks at himself in a mirror.

I wear tank tops in the gym every single day. If some truly out of shape person is laughing because of this…I hope they realize people are laughing right back at them.[/quote]

2 years ago I participated to a documentary on bodybuilding with another bodybuilder (IFBB pro Simon Voyer who is 5’8’’ 255 in contest shape and 285 off-season). Simon said that he hates how everybody puts him down when wearing a classy sleeveless shirt at the beach or in town. He said (translation since this was in french) ‘‘Any fat or skinny guy can walk in a wife-beater without any problem, but if I wear a nice looking sleeveless then I’m a big egotistical bastard’’.

Sad but true.

But the same thing goes for women too. For some reason it’s ok for a fat girl to wear low cut short shorts and a tight top. But dress a bombshell the same way and every other girl will call her a bitch, skank or whatever.

163

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Professor X wrote:
=I would think there is something wrong with someone who works that hard on their body to build that much muscle…but who insists on never showing it in public at all.

Somehow, this is not insecure but they throw that word at every bodybuilder who looks at himself in a mirror.

I wear tank tops in the gym every single day. If some truly out of shape person is laughing because of this…I hope they realize people are laughing right back at them.

2 years ago I participated to a documentary on bodybuilding with another bodybuilder (IFBB pro Simon Voyer who is 5’8’’ 255 in contest shape and 285 off-season). Simon said that he hates how everybody puts him down when wearing a classy sleeveless shirt at the beach or in town. He said (translation since this was in french) ‘‘Any fat or skinny guy can walk in a wife-beater without any problem, but if I wear a nice looking sleeveless then I’m a big egotistical bastard’’.

Sad but true.

But the same thing goes for women too. For some reason it’s ok for a fat girl to wear low cut short shorts and a tight top. But dress a bombshell the same way and every other girl will call her a bitch, skank or whatever.[/quote]

True. However, the bigger you get, the more you get that attitude almost no matter what you wear. It isn’t like a nice short sleeved tee shirt is going to cover or hide 260lbs at average height. If anything, people will still claim you are showing off unless you can find a XXXXL shirt that fits baggy on you.

I remember girls in college cutting down the best looking women based on what they wore. I didn’t know guys did the same until I came to this site.

Who is really the insecure one in these situations?

164

Im just amazed that once again, on something completely unrelated to their goals and practices, you have people coming in from the combat section to talk shit about bodybuilding.

Once again a reason for the T-Cell, this insanity does not happen anywhere else.

I for one, found that the more people bash bodybuilding around me, the closer I must be getting to my goals. Just another way to gauge progress.

165

I REALLY hope I get to the level where people are bashing me because I look too big.

I think I’m gonna eat another steak now…

166

[quote]Professor X wrote:
If people are pointing and laughing because some really large muscular guy is wearing a tank top, the problem is not the guy in the tank top.[/quote]

What color is the tank top? Does it match his pants?

If not, I’m mocking him.

167

There was actually a man lifting in a bandana and oversized headphones the other day while i was working the desk at the gym.

My laughing at him had little to do with his build, which as you might have guessed, what less then impressive.

168

CT,

253# is huge for a natural bodybuilder of 5’8". Post some pics if you do that again. That’s amazing!

Jehovah,

I understand. I don’t have a problem with PTs as a whole. I mean - I have bought some of their books. I have been a long time fan of Jason Ferruggia, CT, Jim Wendler, Ian King, Tom Venuto, Daniel Duchaine, Lyle McDonald, Clay Hyght, Ron Harris, and some others. I guess I could lump Poliquin in there too (admitted like-dislike dilemna) since I have learned SOME things from him. All of these guys have done personal training at some point in their careers or are still regularly doing it.

Shit, I want to get the ACSM health and fitness specialist certification. Its actually going to fulfill 75 CEUs for my RD registration maintenance. I want to get into training people this year - not just poeple interested in looking jacked.

Its just that I - well, its not that I grew tired of hearing some things. I was actually a bit puzzled and humored as to what was going on for the past 5 to 8 years or so in the fitness information field, particularly on the net.

As PX as stated many times, it used to be that the most accomplished bodybuilders were the experts on bodybuilding and perhaps building mass for the layman. Duh!

When I was a little kid, before I picked up weights and just looked at pictures (first pics of BBers I saw were of Robby Robinson, Lee Haney, Lee Labrada, and some others in a book my uncle had; it was 1988 and I was 8 or 9 years old), and so on, I thought to myself “these guys must be full experts on this stuff! Damn, look at them! Who knows how to do that?!”

Fast forward 1.5 to 2 decades!

Now we have threads involving the discussion of the worthiness of bodypart splits, of bodybuilders being a bunch of no-ass-gettin’, outcast, leisurely numbskulls with no lives and somehow got big with faulty training methods, and of SOME personal trainers saying there is a better way to build muscle aside from the bodybuilding method.

That’s why I made this thread - not to bash personal trainers.

169

The same could be said for RDs :wink: just messin with ya.

I’m not saying that good points weren’t made, just found it funny how the thread went in a complete opposite direction.

170

Yes, of course. Most RDs kinda stink. Well, not in medical nutrition therapy issues.

But when it comes to body composition and sports, they are god awful!

171

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
Yes, of course. Most RDs kinda stink. Well, not in medical nutrition therapy issues.

But when it comes to body composition and sports, they are god awful![/quote]

That was a perfect opening for a personal hygiene joke.

Darn.

172

it goes back to if you never care what people think of what you wear than it doesnt matter. If you work hard on getting big whos to tell you you cant show what you work for. If you guys saw how many people in my high school wore tank tops and wife beaters it was crazy. I have a problem when you wear them and you have no muscle and others are opp

173

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Gregus wrote:
Reason BB’s get bashed is because they present themselves like idiots and meat heads. They generally wear ill fitting clothes to show off muscles because of their need to have everyone “see” them as bodybuilders. Their dispositions of superiority don’t help either. People can feel when someone projects arrogance over their physique and a simultaneous distain for the average non workout person.

There are plenty of BB to whom people flock. I knew those myself. They were nice, dressed very well and had very approachable dispositions. They were never mocked but always inspired others to ask for diet and training tips. They never walked around in tang tops.

Some BB are true parodies reminiscent of a baseball player going everywhere in a full baseball uniform, cleats, a baseball in one hand and a bat over the shoulder. Then wondering why people are pointing, some laughing and shaking their heads at them.

If people are pointing and laughing because some really large muscular guy is wearing a tank top, the problem is not the guy in the tank top.[/quote]

Thats true, the problem is with them. But philosophically speaking, the BB is still the one being judged and on the loosing end of peoples perceptions. I guess in the end i guess thats the price you pay for being “different”