Am i the only one with an altered body image? I am not sure if this is a sign of some sourt of insecurity or if everyone who is serious about working out has these feelings and thrive off of them. Throughout the day before my evening workout i never get a chance to look at myself in a mirror nor can I before i actually step in front of the dumbells in the gym. I have a few co-workers who refer to me as big guy, hoss, or hulk things of that nature and it makes me feel like the work i put in at the gym is paying off.
Then when i get in front of a mirror i dont see myself as big at all. Some people at the gym will even ask me if i am on roids, which i am not, but yet i still do not feel like a “big guy” in front of the mirror. It is even worse on my off-days, especially if there is some situation that causes me to miss more than one day, i feel like a stick figure until i get back in the gym. And although sometimes it makes me feel like shit, i think it is one of the driving forces behind my training and i am sure some others use this as a motivator themselves. Say if i take a weekend off completely for some reason i sit on Sunday night and get a little fired up thinking about how hard i am going to train on Monday as a punishment.
I am sure some people with certain personalities and demeanors may not be able to use this as a motivational tool, in fact it may hinder them from working out at all. Which quite honestly baffles me when i see it, but it does happen often. But for those of you who have feelings like this i was just curious of how you dealt with them?
Also other than the “holy shit i am a p**sy” motivation i need some sourt of pick me up before my workout. i have been drinking these diet turbo teas, which work pretty well for energy but i just recently heard some bad feedback. I know some of you dont like to say you need caffeine before you lift but i wake up at 5:00a.m. and i go straight from working outside most of the time to the gym and i dont get there till about 6:30p.m. so believe i need something halfway strong.
Hmmmm…I’m no psychiatrist, but I’ll give it a shot.
I understand your feelings and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t experience them as well or use them for motivation. I’m 6’2", 220lbs. Pretty big to the rest of the world, but I don’t feel that large. I’m pretty lean, too…at around 10% bf when last measured about 8 months ago…but I don’t feel like I’m all that ripped. I also feel much better on days when I tear it up at the gym and feel a little guilty when I take a couple of days off.
I think about my workouts often and wonder if I am going heavy enough/changing things often enough/not doing enough cardio, etc. I’m certainly much more obsessive than your average gym-goer. I’d think most people on this site are.
It’s okay to be passionate about working out. It’s okay to want to improve. It’s okay to use goals and what you’d like to look like as motivation. It’s even okay to be a little pessimistic (“holy shit, I am a pussy”) and use energy drinks to get you to push harder in the gym.
All that said, you should be able to recognize and applaud the progress you have made. Going to the gym should not be the only thing that you focus on or makes you happy. Working out should not inappropriately take you away from responsibilities and loved ones. Not working out should not make you depressed (actually, staying out of the gym for a few days from time to time will probably help your progress). If those things are happening to you, you may need to reassess your life/goals and possibly seek professional help if you cannot get on track.
But, most likely, you are driven to succeed in the gym and you are hard on yourself about it. As long as it is not ruining your life that can be good motivation. Just be honest with yourself. Are you going to the gym because it makes you happy, you want to look good and it’s healthy? Or are you obsessively pushing yourself in a way that is not beneficial.
I like your opinions on this, and i have to agree that i am not your average gym goer. I really dont get depressed as in having physical or psychological problems because i dont work out, but it does bother me a little bit. I think it may be the idea of not being productive with my days off of work when i dont work out. when i kill it in the gym i feel like i have accomplished something with my day.
and even though i am young i have found that it is the little things throughout your day that keep a person happy and able to stay sane in this crazy as place. It is also a relief of some pent up aggression that i get with my work and i am able to take it out at the gym rather than bring it home with me.
Its called muscle dysmorphia (sp). I feel the same way bro. I’m not huge but I’m alot bigger than the normal surfer soy boy. Instead of endlessly beating myself down when I stare at a mirror, I do it for a short period of time and do everything in my power and beyond to improve. You just sometimes need an external reminder that your a deviant from the norm.
What I do is that I sometimes go out and eat my post-training meal at some restaurant. No matter what someone will give you a double take. What’s even funnier is when its a chick and she does it in front of her sorry excuse for a man. No matter what never waver.
I am very similar, i am often asked if using juice, i have gangs of teenagers making comments about the size of my muscles from the other side of the road as i walk to the gym.
I have people looking all the time… But i feel small.
I am NOT hooouuge at 185lbs and 5’8". Like said before, i carry it well i think, i look bigger than i am.
But when i pose at home, i see muscle, but not like i would like or expect… I am built but there is so much to go i feel small in comparison. I have people asking me for tips in the gym, and i have guys watching as i do dips etc, and i know my form is good so it aint that! But there are so many more in better shape than me!!
I ONLY like my progress when i finish my training sesh and see my pumped physique. That is genuinely (apart from when i am fully dressed) the only time i am truly satisfied with my progress and my physiques look. I want to look like that all the time, i suspect it will look that good in another 1/4 inch all over…! Maybe that’s another 14-20lbs at a guess.
I believe in positive and negative addictions. I have an addictive personality and have battled with substance abuse issues for many years, taking the whole of my adult life from me upto to this point, thus why i am rebuilding my life from nothing whatsoever at 28 years old. Again.
Now i am clean once and for all, and i throw my addictions into Bodybuilding. I am healthy, i will do other things if i have the chance, It is my discipline. It is a healthy addiction.
[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
Its called muscle dysmorphia (sp). I feel the same way bro. I’m not huge but I’m alot bigger than the normal surfer soy boy. Instead of endlessly beating myself down when I stare at a mirror, I do it for a short period of time and do everything in my power and beyond to improve. You just sometimes need an external reminder that your a deviant from the norm.
What I do is that I sometimes go out and eat my post-training meal at some restaurant. No matter what someone will give you a double take. What’s even funnier is when its a chick and she does it in front of her sorry excuse for a man. No matter what never waver. [/quote]
Ye, i must add, i don’t sit all depressed and “down” about my size and shape - for one i am happier with it than ever before, but when i was much skinnier, i used to sit in the bath, notice i was skinnier than i wanted, and feel bad until i worked out again. Which at 19 it was 3 times a week, so it kept me motivated. Then it was that, now it is the motivation to get bigger still, or to bring up a BP, or to sculpt a certain pose.
Little did i know at that tender age, i should’ve gotten outta the bath and eaten everything i could! Still - TIME under tension is what matters, and it has been 10 years now… it is all part of a bigger picture, each workout-each gain in strength, it all adds up to when you really notice the results - 10 years later.
Don’t get me wrong, you NOTICE shit, but you GET the result you want in 10 years i reckon. Although by the time 10 years rolls around you want to be bigger yet…! JMO
Consider this. Bodybuilding role models are muscular people at their prime. Most people do not see them or recognize what it takes to get there. So it is understandable that anyone who rises above the norm will get attention from the average folk. However, your eyes and their are on different end goals. You have surpassed what they think possible while you see someone(s) who are beyond your development (the pros). So, the inconsistency between viewpoints is expected.
Acknowledge what you have done well, make note in what you need to improve, and do it.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
Consider this. Bodybuilding role models are muscular people at their prime. Most people do not see them or recognize what it takes to get there. So it is understandable that anyone who rises above the norm will get attention from the average folk. However, your eyes and their are on different end goals. You have surpassed what they think possible while you see someone(s) who are beyond your development (the pros). So, the inconsistency between viewpoints is expected.
Acknowledge what you have done well, make note in what you need to improve, and do it.[/quote]
Er dont think there is a better answer than that.
jeez dude nice
kowface28: your symptoms are in-line with those experienced with having the muscular dysmorphia condition. thankfully you have great supporters in this discussion thread who understand what you are feeling and are offering you support. we actually just posted an entry about this disorder to our Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt blog. check it out if you want some more information and guidance: eatingdisorder.org/blog/2008/06/20/
muscle-dysmorphia-the-misconceived-notion-of-not-measuring-up/
I used to think the same way you do. I was 6’4" 290 and I felt that everyone around me was bigger than me. I am now 230 and I have never felt bigger. What you notice is not only those people calling you big at work, but people starring at you in the weight room and either looking down or away when you look near them. I mean i’m not sitting there giving people death stares, but you know that the guy looking at you doesn�??t want you to catch him checking you out. lol news flash there are a million mirrors in the fucking place. Also what you may notice is those punk kids walking around outside the gym, their chests out and their ILS(imaginary lat syndrome), starring at you like you did something wrong by being bigger than them and that means you some how challenged them non verbally.
It is the little things I began to notice that has me knowing im big now.
It’s not a big deal to me. It’s part of our drive to be better, whether that means leaner, bigger, stronger or- for those freaks that run long distance- have more endurance;^)
If you were an engine builder, would you be satisfied with 350 horsepower or would you strive to squeeze more horsepower out of that engine, more torque, higher redline, better powerband etc.? If it was important enough to you, you’d have the same obsession with getting better.
Wanting to be bigger is what got you in the gym in the first place, it’s the drive that keeps you there pounding away day after day.
If you had REAL self-esteem or inferiority issues, ones to actually worry about, you wouldn’t be in a public gym in the first place. You’d be holed up in your bedroom, peeing in Mountain Dew bottles with blankets over the windows.
You certainly would NOT be putting in all on the line in front of dozens of strangers.
I wish you all would quit even using the words “bigorexia” or “muscle dysmorphia”. Thinking you are not big enough is not a disorder unless it is damaging to your life in some way. There are TONS of people who think they look better than they do. Should we give this a name as well? I mean, besides “imaginary lat syndrome”?
I look up to heavyweights and super-heavyweights. Obviously I don’t think I have reached my goal yet. This does not indicate a disorder. It indicates a perfectionist attitude that I show in pretty much every other aspect of my life and not just bodybuilding.
Prospective doctors still in school are not labeled as having a disorder when they sacrifice years of their life for extreme schooling. Therefore, what is the justification for doing this in bodybuilding? Both groups don’t think they have achieved enough yet and both don’t believe they are good enough yet.
I feal small and weak on mass phases, and fat od precontest diets, all the time. And that keeps me progressing. Keeps my motivation up. Satisfaction would resoult with lack of motivation and finally -stagnation.
It’s not na mental disorder, it’s how most successful people function in science, economy, sports…
[quote]ahzaz wrote:
I feel that when i look DOWN, like at myself, i look worse than when i look in the mirror.[/quote]
Kid, take pictures of yourself now. If you actually stick to this, by the time you turn 18, you won’t even recognize yourself. However, that is all entirely up to you.
so we are addicted to improving physical fitness ? to those who see this as a negative thing i ask them what alternative addictions are there ? would they prefer that we sit on our asses in front of the TV or become alcoholics ?
considering the collective physical fitness of western society i think everyone could stand to be a little more “selfish” when it comes to their bodies
