[quote]Scott M wrote:
Alffi wrote:
I think the hardest part of BB is staying lean while getting larger
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I think it’s becoming a monstrosity of a man when most people can’t get to the point where anyone can tell they lift and they’ve been at it for 5-10 years. Staying lean? Do some cardio and don’t eat a lot. Becoming a freak show? That’s a different story and there’s a reason why there is tons of 180-200 lb lean guys in each gym and only a few(if any) 260-310 lb off season lean guys in each. Maybe that’s an indication of what’s the hardest thing here.
The training itself is inherently easier than in a strength sport. BB reminds me of that time as a child when “exercise is good” and just fooling around and having fun and getting a little gassed is considered productive activity,that’s what they thought at school and that was enough.
I’ve seen some top strength sports athletes train and there is no doubt it’s intense and takes a dedicated person to keep it up, but bodybuilding is easier? Who are you making this observation off of? Hitting a heavy double on front squats is challening sure, but you aren’t going to vomit from it or walk around crippled because of it. Take a 20 rep front squat with shit heavy weights and see how you feel after… tell me which one you’d rather do on a regular basis. I don’t think “a little gassed” would be the appropriate way to describe how hardcore bodybuilders feel after training lol.
A BB’er can be happy with getting sore and lactic in the right places. He does not need to care about strength,speed,mobility,technique etc. and to psychologically push himself to new heights with maximum weights.
That’s why all bodybuilders are happy staying with 135 benches and 185 lb squats right? Oh wait… the inhumanly large ones tend to push 3-4 times that… maybe strength and pushing the limits progression wise is important to a bodybuilder. Go do 2000 pushups everyday, I bet you’ll be sore all the time but you sure as hell won’t be developing a massive chest anytime soon. Get your incline bench press to 425x12 and then take a look in the mirror. Who are these massive bodybuilders that aren’t insanely strong? 150-200 lb dumbbell presses, 400-500 lb rows, leg presses stacked to the brim with loaded barbells thrown on top… that’s what I’m seeing among top guys… what are you looking at?
He can employ methods that retard strength development,like lifting fatigued and slowing down a small weight to get that time under tension and the pump.Even partial ROM may be excused. He can switch exercises on and off, if strength in one goes down it’s allright,as long as the target muscles are torn. Just pump out a moderate weight for a while. That’s pretty fun and not stressful at all.
Besides strict pre contest periods where are these people getting weaker and weaker as they train lol. I can barely even fathom this as it’s beyond comprehension to think that someone would get weaker by WEIGHT TRAINING. Moderate weight for a little while… you can’t even be remotely serious. Watch Ronnie Coleman train his back with 800 lb deads and 14 plate t bar rows and tell me that he and other guys are just lifting moderate weights to get a pump. Get a clue
This is not meant to belittle bodybuilding,which I think is cool. Just present the argument for why it seems to me as if it is easier. I’ve seen some BB’s state that they think that it is the hardest sport in the world. Answer what you will.
Yes you are belittling bodybuilding when you make comments like you do about how you think some of us train. I don’t care if it’s a sport, if it’s the hardest sport etc but don’t come onto the BODYBUILDING forum of a weight training website and try to tell people that they don’t train hard when you’ve barely got a clue.
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As for 180-200 pound and 260-310 pound guys, I do not know whether you’re taking their height and frame into account or not.
I would not expect to see many people who have gone at it for years and yet do not look they were ‘under the bar’. Might be a cultural thing though. In my country,there seems to be a disproportionate number of high achievers in strength athletics.
As for the 20 rep squat,I can only direct you to my earlier post about the difference of going to the limit in BB as opposed to going to the limit in strength (the jumping analogue). I’d much rather do pure bodybuilding because,God help me,I find it far less of a burden.
Regarding strength,I’m not saying that huge bodybuilders are not strong. However,they don’t have to worry as long as they are getting larger. It’s not the priority in their list of worries.
“Moderate” means moderate relative to the lifter’s strength. I thought that would be obvious. And I did not mean that they get weaker,but reaching for an artifical tempo,going to failure as a rule and generally getting wrecked as a general rule is not necessarily very good for something like explosiveness.
My arguments,which I’m willing to reject if tempted by strong counters,can be derived to the observation that bodybuilders are able to vary their lifts a lot,do not have to show any form of true fitness aside from moderate increases in maximum strength,which is a side-effect,evolve technically (in lifting technique,dreaming up superior programs does not count) or suffer the psychological stress of overcoming a specific weight in a specific lift. I’m willing to acknowledge that being a bodybuilder,or shall I say achieving as one,can be harder in some respects than being an oly or powerlifter,strongman etc.
I’m sorry if I came across as saying that you don’t train hard.