[quote]Professor X wrote:
You know, I just looked at one old magazine I had and very rarely did they ever lay out an entire training routine. In fact, I can’t find one. The usual thing to do was for them to write an article on how a pro trained a specific body part. They wouldn’t even go into the weight used most of the time and the usual was three or four different exercises. I really don’t see the big deal.[/quote]
You’re right, but I do remember seeing some spreads or long editorials with entire workout plans. Some people just take bodybuilding too lightly, but then, when it becomes important to them their basic knowledge is already totally screwed up. Yet they continue plowing on without realizing it…enter this thread.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I hate that I wasted my time reading this. I train for strength. I also “bodybuild”. Did someone bigger than you take your lunch money in school and lead to this hatred? Because every professional football player NEVER lifts weights because they want to look good? You have a very simple concept of what a “bodybuilder” is. [/quote]
[quote]Julius_Caesar wrote:
I began to see that bodybuilding was… a crock of shit. Who wants to sit there with a fucking tape measure every month to see if your right bicep has gained a half inch and then cum your pants about it?
Plus the way that they like to stare at themselves in the mirror. It all seems so narcissistic to me; a bunch of men who sit around and stare at themselves in the mirror for hours on end doing those ridiculous poses wearing gay looking speedos, shaving their body hair off and talking shit to one another.
Thoughts?
[/quote]
I agree with this way of thinking. To me, a real man would not attribute large muscles with such importance that he would obsess over himself the way professional bodybuilders do.
HOWEVER…
I see absolutely nothing wrong with training to get bigger, or look better. I personally train as a powerlifter, but I can’t deny the fact that I want to be big and muscular. And there is nothing wrong with training and eating to get that way - as long as you keep everything in perspective.
I hate the mentality that because someone has bigger muscles they are somehow superior. They just have bigger muscles - I can admire the fact that they have worked hard and accomplished something I haven’t accomplished, but in the end it is just muscle. And I whole heartedly agree that obsessing over the pursuit of slightly larger biceps, or better definition in your delts, or whatever, is just plain sad.
So, yes - I agree with some of the points you made. Dedicating your life to bodybuilding is narcissistic, and the body shaving and the posing trunks and the posing routines are downright ridiclous. But a guy who decides he’s tired of being a soft, flabby mess, and decides to build his body (ie. bodybuild)…there’s nothing wrong with that.
What’s your definition of “quite well?” You’re 6 ft and 185. Were you like 140 lbs before?[/quote]
When I was in high school, I weighed about 155 lbs. After a few years of weight training, without working my lower body, I weighed 190. Once I started doing squats and deadlifts, I weighed as much as 232, but admittedly with the muscle gain, came some fat…
My initial thread was a mixture of ball busting and seriousness, but let me be serious for a second…
Bodybuilding in itself is little more than a male beauty pagent where some “judge” uses subjective criterion to pick out which physique that he likes best.
It is not a true sport like powerlifting, olympic lifting, strongman/highland games or anything of that nature.
Many bodybuilders are notoriously narcissistic types who spend hald the time staring at themselves in the mirror in what I term morbid self-obsession.
These stupid odybuilding magazines do more to hurt bodybuilding than anything else.
For one they show a bunch of steroid freaks who the drug free bodybuilder could never look like.
These people look like circus freaks more than humans and especially the women by taking chemicals.
a) Disengenous advertising:
Instead of the fact that these guys and girls are using massive amounts of steroids and GH to get freakishly huge, new comers are enticed to buy the latest supplement to look like them.
By taking supplements and doing
b) Ridiculous routines that are catered for steroid abusing freaks.
As a result, most people don’t come anywhere near looking like Ronnie Coleman or even the guy who finished in last place in the Mr. O and quit.
My picture is in my profile. Criticism of my development now compells a picture of YOU.[/quote]
You are bigger than me of course. But I bet you would feel pretty weak if I was working out with my Inch dumbell loaded with 140 pounds next to you that I just deadlifted and I Said “Hey big guy could you hand me that dumbell to me?” and you couldn’t even budge it off of the floor…
My picture is in my profile. Criticism of my development now compells a picture of YOU.
You are bigger than me of course. But I bet you would feel pretty weak if I was working out with my Inch dumbell loaded with 140 pounds next to you that I just deadlifted and I Said “Hey big guy could you hand me that dumbell to me?” and you couldn’t even budge it off of the floor…
[/quote]
I wouldn’t feel weak at all. I know what I am capable of and know my strengths well. I have challenged myself to do things that most people wouldn’t do. I know where my limits are mentally and physically because I pushed myself to them over and over.
You couldn’t possibly make me feel weak. I’ve spent my entire life learning just how strong I really am and that goes far beyond just the physical. To make you feel weak, all we’d have to do is have a conversation.
[quote]Julius_Caesar wrote:
My initial thread was a mixture of ball busting and seriousness, but let me be serious for a second…
Bodybuilding in itself is little more than a male beauty pagent where some “judge” uses subjective criterion to pick out which physique that he likes best.
It is not a true sport like powerlifting, olympic lifting, strongman/highland games or anything of that nature.
[/quote]
I believe what you are talking about is competitve bodybuilding. I don’t have any statistics to quote, but I have to believe that the majority of people that are bodybuilding in a gym are not doing it to compete. A lot of folks do it to look better, feel better, improve their health, ect. So don’t lump all the avocational bodybuilders in with the competitors.
Admittedly, I roll my eyes when they start posing in front of the mirror. However, if they have a contest coming up, I’m sure they feel this is necessary. I usually try to pay more attention to what I’m doing.
First of all, the mags are trying to make money. That is their first and foremost objective. One of the ways they do this is to sell advertising. If the athletes (who are usually sponsered by a supp company) came out and said “You only need three things to be as big as me; dedication, good genetics and truck loads of anabolic steroids, everything else is crap and hype.”, how successful do you think that athlete would be in the competitive arena? No one would touch him.
Remember, the contests are sponsered by supplement companies, and it’s all about making money.
As a result, most people don’t come anywhere near looking like Ronnie Coleman or even the guy who finished in last place in the Mr. O and quit.
[/quote]
People who quit because they can’t weigh 300lbs in contest condition aren’t quitting because of a magazine or even because of other bodybuilders. They quit because that is what they are all about.
There are people in charge of multi-million dollar companies who barely graduated from college (if they went at all). Maybe every college student should quit going to school simply because they may never be mega-rich.
If they do quit, exactly how fierce was their drive to begin with?
[quote]Julius_Caesar wrote:
But I bet you would feel pretty weak if I was working out with my Inch dumbell loaded with 140 pounds next to you that I just deadlifted
[/quote]
This guy must be right, he can dead lift 140 lbs!!
[quote]Helga wrote:
Julius_Caesar wrote:
But I bet you would feel pretty weak if I was working out with my Inch dumbell loaded with 140 pounds next to you that I just deadlifted
This guy must be right, he can dead lift 140 lbs!![/quote]
I can deadlift an Inch dumbell with 140lbs. Do you even know what an Inch dumbell is?
As a result, most people don’t come anywhere near looking like Ronnie Coleman or even the guy who finished in last place in the Mr. O and quit.
People who quit because they can’t weigh 300lbs in contest condition aren’t quitting because of a magazine or even because of other bodybuilders. They quit because that is what they are all about.
There are people in charge of multi-million dollar companies who barely graduated from college (if they went at all). Maybe every college student should quit going to school simply because they may never be mega-rich.
If they do quit, exactly how fierce was their drive to begin with?[/quote]
I think that you greatly underestimate the power of these magazines and supplement advertising. When John Q Public gets into weightlifting, many times he goes out and buys one of these mags and dreams of looking like the guys in them.
Now the guys in them give their routines, and the supplements that they take. So the next thing that people do is follow their routines and buy their supplements. What follows is failure and overtraining because the routines that they are doing are meant for extreme juicers.
This is what happened to me and many people that I know. It has to be the mosy common mistake of beginning weightlifters/bodybuilders.
a) Disengenous advertising:
new comers are enticed to buy the latest supplement to look like them.
By taking supplements and doing
As a result, most people don’t come anywhere near looking like Ronnie Coleman or even the guy who finished in last place in the Mr. O and quit.
[/quote]
I bought some Nike Air Jordans and Gatorade, why can’t I dunk from the free throw line and make it to the NBA? How come hot babes don’t come out of the woods ready to party when I crack open a can of Budweiser?
Julius_Caesar even my 8 year old nephew understands the agenda and strategies of advertising to push product sales. I don’t care how new you are to working out, you should understand that taking the newest NO2 product isn’t going to get you your IFBB pro card.
I think it’s pretty pathetic to say you got turned off of bodybuilding because of the false advertising claims in the magazines.
So the next thing that people do is follow their routines and buy their supplements. What follows is failure and overtraining because the routines that they are doing are meant for extreme juicers.
This is what happened to me and many people that I know. It has to be the mosy common mistake of beginning weightlifters/bodybuilders.
[/quote]
So because you were stupid enough to follow a professional bodybuilder’s routine as a beginner and obviously had very little success, you now hate and mock bodybuilding and everything it stands for?
You are a quitter. Many people have made this mistake but have since made corrections to their workouts and gone on to have success in bodybuilding. With all of the great information available on this site couldn’t you apply it and have some success in bodybuilding…oh wait that might actually require some effort and commitment, never mind.
So the next thing that people do is follow their routines and buy their supplements. What follows is failure and overtraining because the routines that they are doing are meant for extreme juicers.
This is what happened to me and many people that I know. It has to be the mosy common mistake of beginning weightlifters/bodybuilders.
So because you were stupid enough to follow a professional bodybuilder’s routine as a beginner and obviously had very little success, you now hate and mock bodybuilding and everything it stands for?
You are a quitter. Many people have made this mistake but have since made corrections to their workouts and gone on to have success in bodybuilding. With all of the great information available on this site couldn’t you apply it and have some success in bodybuilding…oh wait that might actually require some effort and commitment, never mind.
[/quote]
I still work out, I am just into strength sports. If I had to do it all over again and I was a teenager again, I would probably do strongman stuff.
When I was into bodybuilding, progress was measured with measuring tape. Now my progress is measured through lifting heavier objects, closing grippers and the like.
You couldn’t possibly make me feel weak. I’ve spent my entire life learning just how strong I really am and that goes far beyond just the physical. To make you feel weak, all we’d have to do is have a conversation.[/quote]
I wouldn’t feel weak at all. I know what I am capable of and know my strengths well. I have challenged myself to do things that most people wouldn’t do. I know where my limits are mentally and physically because I pushed myself to them over and over.
You couldn’t possibly make me feel weak. I’ve spent my entire life learning just how strong I really am and that goes far beyond just the physical. To make you feel weak, all we’d have to do is have a conversation.[/quote]
Oh something tells me that you would feel weak being lifted by a guy who weighs nearly 100 pounds less than you…
So what would you dazzle me with in a coversation that would make me feel “weak” anyway? I am dying to hear this one…
Oh something tells me that you would feel weak being lifted by a guy who weighs nearly 100 pounds less than you…
[/quote]
This right here probably describes everything about you. I have no doubt you are the guy who walks in and turns up his nose at anyone bigger than him. You probably eye other guys down or watch every exercise they perform so you can tell yourself that you are “relatively stronger” than them. This helps you sleep at night. It keeps your mind off of the fact that after all of these years, after all of the energy you put into it, you had to throw water on those burning early dreams of yours. That is why you blame magazines. It is why you blame guys bigger than you who compete. It hurt you and you won’t rest until you can throw some of that hurt right back.
How is that going for you?
If this thread is a sign, I would say, “not so well.”
I still work out, I am just into strength sports. If I had to do it all over again and I was a teenager again, I would probably do strongman stuff.
When I was into bodybuilding, progress was measured with measuring tape. Now my progress is measured through lifting heavier objects, closing grippers and the like.[/quote]
I don’t follow. The subtext of your original post was that because bodybuilders compare themselves to each other [in and through their appearance, i.e., the tapemeasure], they were gay–in every sense of the word, it seemed. Now you’re posting about how you focus on lifting heavier objects and gripper strength.
What the hell’s the difference? Today, you’re judging yourself in relation to others and their perception of you. Your self-worth, judging from every single post you’ve made, is grounded in how others evaluate you. According to your own standards, does that mean that you’re into the oils too?
My point here is twofold. One, that you’re throwing around queer panic like it’s candy. Two, that from what I can see very little has changed for you from your description of your teenage years to today.
You couldn’t possibly make me feel weak. I’ve spent my entire life learning just how strong I really am and that goes far beyond just the physical. To make you feel weak, all we’d have to do is have a conversation.[/quote]
Seriously, this is the best paragraph I’ve ever seen posted on here in two years of lurking and a year of posting. You’re incredibly articulate, Prof.