From my experience in general Europeans are leaner than Americans. The German’s may be the biggest, but even an overweight German would be considered pretty average in my northern midwest town. But the French, yeah, they all were like high school skinny.
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Yes indeed. Also, Americans are very sports-oriented. In High school, college etc pretty much everyone does sport. But it’s coming here and more and more people are doing sports.
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my existence summed up from 0:03-0:10.
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The Dutch and Scandinavians would have to be up there too as far as general size. But I was getting more at the fact that the French manage to be fit without obsessing about it, probably for interesting cultural reasons. For instance, my understanding is that eating is a social occasion for most French people; one sits down to eat and talk with family or friends. There is little of the American practice of sitting in front of the TV eating burgers and pizza or eating while sitting alone and surfing the web. Something about the French practice seems to bring some moderation.
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The concept of a muscular physique with visible abs being a relatively modern phenomenon is wrong. It actually dates back to Classical times (at least). The Greeks considered it the ideal physique.
So while it may not be realistically sustainable for most men, the core (pardon the pun) ideal appears to be sustainable, in Western culture, at least, for the last +2,000 years.
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Outstanding point. The Farnese Hercules remains an admirable physique to this very day as well.
And, like, there had to be A dude back then that they based the model off of…
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Renaissance artists would dissect cadavers to understand the inner workings of the human body. Their artistic representations were meant as ideals, not a reflection of the actual models.
S
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Greeks were as obsessed with beauty as we are. But I reckon this ideal physique was certainly way more sustenaible at the time with virtually no processed food, and a population way more active walking around all the time
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I think we’ve all been there at one time or another.
Fun fact: quite a few Egyptian pharaohs were obese
Also fun fact: there were a few Austrian princesses who loved to take very long walks. Their dresses weighed upwards 70lbs AND they were in corsets. Those ladies were fit
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Presumably it was the biggest, most muscular dude going at the time. Hard to imagine someone modelling “Hercules” from an average Joe.
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I like the idea of Hercules being a skinnyfat DYEL dude, and that statue was the ancient version of a filtered insta pic.
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Do the statues of pharaohs with abs and stuff count?
The Bible does say Jesus was perfect.
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I’ve genuinely never seen any of these. Do you have any examples?
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It’s more in line with @Cyrrex 's definitions of abs, not up to T Nation standards
11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt | HISTORY.
6. Egyptian pharaohs were often overweight.
Egyptian art commonly depicts pharaohs as being trim and statuesque, but this was most likely not the case. The Egyptian diet of beer, wine, bread and honey was high in sugar, and studies show that it may have done a number on royal waistlines. Examinations of mummies have indicated that many Egyptian rulers were unhealthy and overweight, and even suffered from diabetes. A notable example is the legendary Queen Hatshepsut, who lived in the 15th century B.C. While her sarcophagus depicts her as slender and athletic, historians believe she was actually obese and balding.
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I wouldn’t knock the old.guy too much. I have a feeling he’s probably leaned up a lot better than he’s letting on.
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Tongue in cheek
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$68 for me. However, I did have a doc send me for a bone density scan (same thing) and at the time I didn’t know enough to ask for the results.
I am well aware of the teasing that I invite, and have no problem with it. And I am probably at least as ripped as your average pharoah.
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