[quote]Professor X wrote:
Bricknyce wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
optheta wrote:
But it does bring up a good question as to the state of Professional Bodybuilding today. I mean have they really have gotten to big? Why is bodybuilding not as popular as it was back in year of Arnold etc. Why did it lose its limelite?
I remember watching a video of Ronnie Coleman saying that “someday people will realize were just like any other sport.” It used to be like that but it went back to being underground 
aww hell no! don’t /thread me. jk lol! I think certain aspects of bodybuilding have gone mainstream. Look around you. The boom of the supplement industry. Someone wants to get big. I walk into my new facility and see maybe 2 guys no counting myself that are there to take care of business. The rest of the population all want the same thing we strive for and punish our bodies to accomplish but a a lesser cost.
Need I say it? Fuck yeah! “Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but ain’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights! I do it though!” -King Coleman. Hearing him say, “I do it though” fucking fires me up to the point that upon the conclusion of this post I’m going to go train. Proudly proclaiming his deviance from the norm. The sport has gone mainstream to a lesser degree.
Everybody wants decent to big arms, a proud chest, cannon ball delts and by default live the lifestyle to a lesser degree. This halfbreed sees Coleman and says, “eww” while the true aspiring bodybuilder sees the man behind the 8 Sandows. The halfbreed stops when the burn in the bicep curl begins. The “few” push through the pain, drop that weight and continue until the burn is so intense the mind has to quickly block out the trauma. The differences are many and my time is exhausted.
My concluding statements are: certain aspects of the sport have gone mainstream but due to the view that society has regarding certain necessary factors the sport will never flourish.
Actually, most people don’t give a shit about building big muscles; so I wouldn’t call them half-breeds, considering they don’t have that aspiration in the first place!
I USED TO care about being huge; actually, my highest bodyweight - a blend of a lot of muscle and a bit of fat - was 245# at 5’10"; that’s when I actually wanted to get seriously involved in bodybuilding and powerlifting.
My priorities and interests in life have VASTLY changed; I now weigh a lean 220# and really wouldn’t mind being 200#. Life has actually been A WHOLE LOT EASIER AND FUN this year than when I was a bodybuilding fanatic.
Actually, I met my current girlfriend three weeks after saying to myself, “I so don’t care about being huge anymore.”
I’m not a halfbreed because I couldn’t care less about being overly jacked anymore.
I still take fitness and lifting very seriously. I lift three times per week on a TBT program and do much more cardio and flexibility work; plus I now have the energy and time to spread over playing schoolyard sports like handball and b-ball which in turn has let me develop new friendships and acquaintanceship.
I’ve also been more involved in career development and volunteer work.
I think some T-men might want to think about how different some other people’s priorities are; many of them SO DON’T CARE about being jacked.
Then they should stay the hell out of the bodybuilding forum. No offense, but there are quite a few of us who DO care about getting jacked and still manage to have all of the things you listed from a career to a relationship. The last thing they or we need is someone who isn’t as serious about making more progress professing how much they don’t want to get big. I doubt anyone here cares.
If you don’t want to gain anymore muscle, fine…keep it to yourself. Why is that even a topic of discussion on a forum clearly marked “BODYBUILDING”?
I am not sure what you wrote this for. Great, your priorities changed. Over the course of a lifetime, priorities will rise and fall for every single one of us. None of that changes the amount of focus and determination that goes into making significant physical progress.
This is not the forum for “people who don’t want any more muscle and who now are happy losing weight and not focusing so hard on bodybuilding”.
I mean, holy shit, you are not the only one with a demanding career or who has had to go to extremes at times in changing priorities to succeed at one task or another.[/quote]
Your job is far more demanding than mine; you’re a dentist.
I’m in the bodybuilding forum still because although I’m not heavily involved like I used to, I still like the sport and admire the competitors; I’m actually going to three shows in the next three months; I just saw one of my friends compete two weeks ago.
I said what I said because I THINK that when some guys use the words “half breed,” they are referring to guys that are not putting up impressive numbers and huge while most of these guys don’t care about getting big in the first place. Dr. Berardi wrote an article once, titled Weightlifting Snobbery, that goes over this sort of attitude.
Prof, you’ve accomplished more in the gym and your physique than I ever have and have a great education and highly respected job. I think that’s awesome; I have no intention of bashing anyone’s goals, desires, or lifestyle practices on here.
Perhaps I went on a bit of a tangent about myself and the content didn’t belong in the thread.
Peace!