I missed this in 2022, but I agree 100% with OP.
The naturally lazy person has no fear of the curse of cortisol spikes. Cortisol is concern for any competitive bodybuilder.
A highly driven person exposes himself with many stressful occurrences. They easily become cortisol magnets.
Ectomorphs are frequently classified as “nervous types” whenever the discussion comes up in bodybuilding books of yore. It makes sense that the people that are frequently fidgety and stressed struggle to put on muscle.
And Justin Harris has remarked that most of the best bodybuilders tend to not think too much about the process. They just eat as much chicken and rice as they can and smash weights and just do it longer than everyone else.
There definitely needs to be a degree of intellectual and physical lethargy when the goal is to become the biggest mammal.
And for the competitive bodybuilder have the most cut appearance at the most stressful moment: the judging. The driven person easily will find themselves stressed on stage, thus they will look smoother that moment than either the day before or the day after the contest. The lazy person rarely stresses over anything.
This applies to most walks I can think of.
Maybe also a bit of selection bias: if I’m good at something it stresses me less… therefore the higher performers are less stressed individuals (in that endeavor)
This is a concept known as “wu wei” in Taoism.
Apex predators rarely, if ever, get stressed out.
I would hardly place myself as an apex predator. I trained the stress out of being on stage. For three decades I competed about 3 shows every year. I always had a warmup show 2 or 3 weeks before the important show of each year.
I never placed myself in a “all or nothing” situation. I grew to feel comfortable on stage. It was my aim to feel zero anxiety the day of the show.
Anxiety, no. Sense of urgency, yes. There’s a huge difference. Most successful people are driven and always have a sense of urgency.
I don’t see the connection to bodybuilding.
Think of your contest prep. How can there not be a sense of urgency if you want to do the very best and win.
I learned that there was always another competition. Absolutely no urgency is involved.
Competitive bodybuilding is closer to farming. Seedtime and harvest. Urgency gets you nowhere but stressed.
Good way of looking at it. I was one and done for my first (and last) competition in 1993. I enjoy bodybuilding, but not competing.
It wasn’t stress. It just wasn’t enjoyable
I sure get that. No one back stage is pulling for you. I imagine that girls in beauty pageants can relate.
I wanted an unbiased judgment of my physique by those with a critical eye.
Very likely I have received more trophies than most everyone here. But definitely I have failed to place in many more contests than anyone here. Probably by a good margin.
I found competing to not be stressful at all. The actual with and effort was in the lead up to it. I also have absolutely zero say over what the judges like and who they view as a champion. It’s very easy and stress free compared to other sports I have competed in, particularly combat sports like wrestling, mma and jiu jitsu.
This is kind of what I was getting at around “if you’re good at it, it’s not stressful.” Game day always bothered me less than practice (to an extent) because I knew I already had my spot and I was rolling. Practice I was being judged and could lose my spot.
I’d imagine getting onstage, on the other hand, would make me a bit anxious.
Powerlifting is notorious for that shit.
