Social Life vs Bodybuilding?

Training Bodybuilding
61

[quote]im kenny wrote:
whenever i go hang with my friends and we drink i bring peanuts and drink alot of water
its better to wake up awkardly next to some chick in your friends house than to be a loser[/quote]

You are 15…you are talking out of your ass right now.

It’s probably awkward for you when you wake up next to a chick in your friends house because you fell asleep with your dick in your hand while you were jacking off next to her.

I really hate when little kids try to act all bad ass, it’s a pet peeve.

62

Because this has turned into a Social Life vs. Bodybuilding vs. Education “debate”, I’m going to throw my two cents in with a REAL LIFE EXAMPLE.

Tomorrow morning I am writing the LSAT–what will almost definitely end up being the most important test I ever write. It’s Friday, and tonight one of my closest friends is celebrating her birthday, so I’m going to her place around 8, I’m not going to drink, and I’m coming home at 10 to make sure that I get enough sleep to smash the shit out of the LSAT tomorrow.

I could stay home and study tonight, but I’ve been preparing for months, and right now what I really need to do is chill and try to avoid the stress of thinking too much about the test.

I had an awesome back session today, I’m going to get to hang out with my friends tonight, and tomorrow morning I get to show the test-makers at LSAC what I’m made of.

It’s all a matter of prioritization.

63

[quote]Mr.Martian wrote:
Professor X,

Sounds like you did pretty well for yourself. Can I get some advice?

I just started my junior year as a biology major, in hopes of going to pharmacy school after I graduate. I currently have a 3.36 gpa.

Aside from busting ass in school, what would you recommend I should do? Extracurricular wise?
I know getting good grades isn’t enough these days.

Thanks
[/quote]

You need community service on your resume. Getting involved in programs with that goal around school (even fraternities who do service programs are a good idea if you decide to go that route) and showing any prospective schools that you had more going on than just studying and fucking around helps.

A 3.36 isn’t bad…but you are about to get into a very competitive arena and what may set you apart from others with better grades is being more well rounded and being able to show that on paper when they look at your resume.

Just from experience, a guy who plays football, does community service, and is involved in other positive extracurricular activities…who has a 3.4 GPA will often stand out over some guy who has a 4.0 but didn’t do shit else while they were in college.

I hope that helps. There were people in my class in school who had tried for several years to get into dental school before they were accepted and some of them had very good grades.

64

[quote]Bona wrote:
im kenny wrote:
whenever i go hang with my friends and we drink i bring peanuts and drink alot of water
its better to wake up awkardly next to some chick in your friends house than to be a loser

I usually bust out my rag and a bottle of ether, how does the peanuts and bottle of water work to get the girl?[/quote]

“Would you like to see my peanuts?” sips water casually

65

Thanks Prof X,

I was thinking about going to the school’s hospital and volunteering or possibly going to the local pharmacy to volunteer or get a job.

In your opinion, is this enough?

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Mr.Martian wrote:
Professor X,

Sounds like you did pretty well for yourself. Can I get some advice?

I just started my junior year as a biology major, in hopes of going to pharmacy school after I graduate. I currently have a 3.36 gpa.

Aside from busting ass in school, what would you recommend I should do? Extracurricular wise?
I know getting good grades isn’t enough these days.

Thanks

You need community service on your resume. Getting involved in programs with that goal around school (even fraternities who do service programs are a good idea if you decide to go that route) and showing any prospective schools that you had more going on than just studying and fucking around helps.

A 3.36 isn’t bad…but you are about to get into a very competitive arena and what may set you apart from others with better grades is being more well rounded and being able to show that on paper when they look at your resume.

Just from experience, a guy who plays football, does community service, and is involved in other positive extracurricular activities…who has a 3.4 GPA will often stand out over some guy who has a 4.0 but didn’t do shit else while they were in college.

I hope that helps. There were people in my class in school who had tried for several years to get into dental school before they were accepted and some of them had very good grades.
[/quote]

66

I disagree with all those who say going out and getting moderately hammered once a week will hamper your progress. It does. Not enough to stop progress, but enough to ‘hamper’ it.

I have known a lot of BB’s who used GHB… but of all of them i have never met a bodybuilder who used GHB/GBL etc that did not use any other recreational drugs.

Even those guys who used steroids but didn’t use recreational drugs wouldn’t tend to use GHB. It goes against the grain of the sport… so does getting wasted every week.

IMO a ‘bodybuilder’ is the guy who you just know without asking that he lifts religiously and has done so for many years.
He is the guy who goes home early from the party as he needs to get up early to train, he maybe had 2 or 3 beers if he wasn’t dieting and spaced them out with mineral water and he ate 50% of the meat from a buffet that was meant to feed 20 people.

Either that or he is your bodybuilder friend who can’t come to the party tonight as he is dieting.

If you can be that guy, then good. If not - don’t beat yourself up.

TBH unless you are really serious about the sport or want to compete, there is no need to restrict yourself of most social occasions. It is perfectly possible to drink alcohol to get drunk weekly (as the vast majority of 16-80 yr olds do in the UK) and maintain a muscular physique with a moderate body fat level.

I just don’t think that this can be done weekly or regularly for someone who wants to be the best they can be.

In short:

If you are serious, you manipulate EVERY DAMN variable possible to your advantage and let your genetics determine the final package.

If you are part-time, you do the best you can while making sure it doesn’t impede too much into the other things you enjoy and don’t bitch when you don’t look as good as you want.

:wink:

JJ

67

[quote]Mr.Martian wrote:
Thanks Prof X,

I was thinking about going to the school’s hospital and volunteering or possibly going to the local pharmacy to volunteer or get a job.

In your opinion, is this enough?

[/quote]

It’s never “enough”.

Those are good ideas and I had been volunteering in hospitals since I was in high school. However, this really isn’t about getting to a point where you say, “there…I finally did enough”.

68

Get your food in any case, learn from the master:

good parody:

69

but you can do enough to neither progress nor retreat. that lovely place of successful stagnation. its like passing a test even though you didnt study. thats not the full potential grade you would recieve had you prepared adequately. the way i see it, by like 6 or 7ish the night before a test, you should have covered everything you plan on knowing

70

[quote]SilentBob490 wrote:
Like most people on this site, I like to consider myself a bodybuilder(or at least an aspiring one). And like a lot of you have surely experienced, this has almost gone against the current trend of society in how we try to live our lives.

My case. I have just entered college, am hoping to make big gains this year, but am constantly obstructed by the bane that is my ‘social life’. That is, getting shit faced 3 days a week is seen as the status quo to being ‘cool’ in college.

Drinking alcohol has the role in inhibiting muscle gains, but there’s also missing meals from being out all night and missing meals.(My metabolism dictates that I eat every 3 hours to keep making progress and that includes later at night).

Why is it that I am constantly pushed to go and get locked with my mates, and if I refuse for bodybuilding goals I am seen as a freak. I have limited myself to drinking every 2 weeks, but even that is not good even for them, longing to see me get drunk to be part of the crowd. Fuck that.

How have you dealt with this. Bringing meals to parties? Flat out refusing to go to most of em? I really wish to address the more developed and senior member of the site who have been there and managed to build a formidable physique regardless of societal pressures for them to stay average.[/quote]

You need to live your life, have fun, and stop being so restrictive. There is plenty of room in life for both bodybuilding and partying. I recently finished my senior year at the University of California, partied 5-6 days a week, was in a fraternity, lived in for a year, graduated with a double major, and still lifted 6 times a week.

College, and life in general, is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you should should pack in as much as you can. Lifting should consume 1.5 hrs max per day, period. If you party right, don’t binge drink, blackout, or do ridiculous drugs while you party, you should be fine. There is a huge difference between drinking smart and just drinking. I’m not telling you I didn’t have nights where I went 15 drinks deep and regretted it the whole next day, but learning to be smart about how much your drink (eg. cutting yourself off after 1 in the morning when those extra shots are pointless) will be a huge benefit.

Don’t cut yourself off and don’t become obsessive about lifting. When your in the gym, work your fucking ass off, and when your eating, be very smart about it, but when its time to have fun and party, let go and have fun, just be smart about it. Life is to short to skip out on anything.

71

[quote]J-J wrote:

If you are serious, you manipulate EVERY DAMN variable possible to your advantage and let your genetics determine the final package.
[/quote]

This is exactly it.

72

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Rational Gaze wrote:
Ratchet wrote:
Otherways to get around drinking - powerade: tell people you pout vodka or malibu rum in it… get club soda and put lime in it: tell everyone its a gin and tonic (it tastes good too!!)… sip a microbrew and enjoy it… fruit punch… chocolate protein shakes and tell everyone that its a kahlua drink…

or just tell them you have a drug / alcahol test for some reason the next day… all of the above let you be social, enjoy your life, keep yoru goals, and have fun… or you can just nut up and cut lose sometimes too…

I’m sorry, but if you have to lie to people about drinking alchohol, then both you and them have serious problems.

Agreed. I always just told them I didn’t want to drink. They eventually quit asking. That doesn’t mean I am against alcohol either. I just don’t like it in general and I hate the feeling of being drunk.

As far as school is concerned, you are there to get an education. I know that may sound ridiculous, but most of the people acting like going out every weekend is the thing to do rarely made decent enough grades to do much after college.

Today, you pretty much need an advanced degree in some area in order to make a decent living. They say college degrees today are like what high school degrees were 40-50 years ago.

I did not go out every weekend. I was a biology major and if you get a GPA like I saw quoted above, that basically means any chances at professional school after that degree are over and done with.

College is the time where you finally figure out who you are and who you plan to be for the rest of your life. If you go through still bowing to peer pressure (like it seems many people here are by how they hide and lie about why they don’t do this and that to friends) good luck finding that ability to be an individual later on.

You need to decide what your goals are. If your goals don’t include making decent grades, then party every fucking weekend if you want to.

In college, my grades came first. Weight lifting was not my top priority even though my actions towards it helped define who I am.[/quote]

I’m in total agreement with you here. It is funny how conflicted most people act when choosing between their schoolwork and their social life. You’ll never have regrets if you do what’s best for yourself in the long term.

In the end, just have a balance in your life. Lift, eat, drink and be merry.

Best,
Henry

73

If you want to be the best at anything you have to make sacrifices. I don’t necessarily cut my self of from socializing but I look at things this way.

Is it going to make me better at my sport of choice? If so i’ll do it

Does it not have negative or positive effect on my sport of choice? If so i’ll do it

Does it have a negative effect on my sport of choice? Not doing it

To achieve something of value you must be willing to sacrifice something of equal value- I don’t now who said it but thats pretty much my view.

74

[quote]MODOK wrote:
There is nothing wrong with having a good time and drinking…just do it on your own terms. See “Education of a Bodybuilder” by Arnold for what I’m talking about…what is needed:

  1. set of weights
  2. keg of beer
  3. meat
  4. hot chicks
  5. woods

Take weight, chicks, and beer to woods. Lift, eat, drink, screw. Repeat until exhaustion. One of the funnier stories by the Oak.[/quote]

Hahah, I remember that in the book. Arnold was a real ladies man.

75

I’m a junior in college, taking a pretty hefty course load. Regardless I have my time set aside for training every day, making adjustments where needed to fit the schedule. I go out and party, just like everyone else my age… but it’s simply a matter of dedication. If you are dedicated, you will find time.

Also, I have been doing things like this for awhile, and it might just be that the people I hang out with are awesome, but I get more admiration than enmity for my dedication. In fact, several of them have been inspired to start training themselves. Regardless, don’t let other people bog down your ambition; just know when the time is right for working, and when the time is right for partying.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and what X said. Great post. Personally I combine grades and training as top priority. Equal demeanor towards strengthening the body and the mind forges one hell of an individual. If you are outgoing and ambitious, that is something that garners far more respect from people than how skilled you are at drinking games.

76

[quote]Kregore wrote:
“If you are outgoing and ambitious, that is something that garners far more respect from people than how skilled you are at drinking games.” [/quote]

Not IME before a certain age…

I agree though and it is how i live my life… but i most certainly have had my partying so i have not ‘missed out’ on anything in that respect.

77

In the UK, and I assume in Ireland where the OP is from, the first year doesn’t count towards your final grade at all. You only have to pass with 40% to be able to continue, and then it’s only the 2nd and 3rd years that count towards your final grade.

78

Fair Enough! Thanks X.

I guess I’m going to go stick my nose into some books now and see what I can get as far as volunteer work goes.

Thanks again

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Mr.Martian wrote:
Thanks Prof X,

I was thinking about going to the school’s hospital and volunteering or possibly going to the local pharmacy to volunteer or get a job.

In your opinion, is this enough?

It’s never “enough”.

Those are good ideas and I had been volunteering in hospitals since I was in high school. However, this really isn’t about getting to a point where you say, “there…I finally did enough”.

[/quote]

79

Simply stated: Think bodybuilding when your in the gym and at the table, the rest of the day should be left to pursue your passions, accomplish your goals, and have some f*****g fun.

80

I remember when I entered college my first year. For the first month or so… no drinking, no going out, sleeping at 10 - 11 every night and waking up at 7 - 8 and feeling pretty damn good. I couldn’t run as much due to some injuries, got frustrated and drank 3 nights a week a good amount that semester (tues/thurs/fri or sat), sometimes 4 nights a week I guess. I would admit, that was a bit much, but I still got a 3.85 my first semester.

Next semester, no drinking, sleeping early, etc, you know the deal. Got a 3.65. In college, whenever I drank more, went out more, I think it gave me the “off” time to relax and just not worry about the stuff that seems important at the time and small later on. Usually, these were the semesters when I had my best GPA for the year or overall.

Either you enjoy drinking or you don’t; however, don’t let that dictate if you’re having fun or not. I do know though when I went out, I met more people and had a healthier social life than when I stayed at home and didn’t hang out with friends. Although, I’d take my above with the caveat that I didn’t have to study until late jr yr or sr yr class, and even then it was only 2 -3 hrs of studying, max, the night before a test.