What is Bodybuilding to T-Nation?

Training
141

[quote]gregron wrote:
^^These are my shooting fish… in a barrel

[quote]heavythrower wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
According to some of you, Vic Richards is NOT a bodybuilder.[/quote]

1992 Nigerian Championships – 1st and Overall
1989 Mr. Barbados – 1st
1984 California Gold Cup Classic – 1st
1983 Teen Los Angeles – 1st
1982 American Cup – 2nd

Didn’t Vic Richards compete in all of these shows? Under no one heres definitions would Richards NOT be considered a bodybuilder.[/quote]

lol, you have to admit, he got ya there ID, ;)[/quote]

You know gregron has love for ID… I just couldnt resist [/quote]

No, I’m talking about NOW. Although not onstage anymore, he still lifts and looks like a bodybuilder, so he IS a bodybuilder.

If I were to accept that anyone who once stepped onstage in the past but now doesn’t is still a bodybuilder - even though he no longer lifts nor looks like a bodybuilder - I would have to accept that Arnold is still a bodybuilder.
But he is not.

Love ya back, Greg. Seriously.

142

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
No, I’m talking about NOW. Although not onstage anymore, he still lifts and looks like a bodybuilder, so he IS a bodybuilder.

If I were to accept that anyone who once stepped onstage in the past but now doesn’t is still a bodybuilder - even though he no longer lifts nor looks like a bodybuilder - I would have to accept that Arnold is still a bodybuilder.
But he is not.

Love ya back, Greg. Seriously.
[/quote]

He used to compete but he has gotten older and doesnt have the desire to compete anymore(retired from the sport?)… that doesnt make him any less a bodybuilder than getting old and retiring makes Nolan Ryan any less of a baseball player, IMO. (sticking with the baseball analogy)

143

The gym is my sanctuary, the weights are my prayer bench…

144

[quote]Mike T. wrote:

The gym is my sanctuary, the weights are my prayer bench…[/quote]

This is my shaker bottle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My shaker bottle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my shaker bottle is useless. Without my shaker bottle, I am useless.

145

[quote]anonym wrote:

[quote]Mike T. wrote:

The gym is my sanctuary, the weights are my prayer bench…[/quote]

This is my shaker bottle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My shaker bottle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my shaker bottle is useless. Without my shaker bottle, I am useless.[/quote]

HA…Movie references.

146

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
^^These are my shooting fish… in a barrel

[quote]heavythrower wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
According to some of you, Vic Richards is NOT a bodybuilder.[/quote]

1992 Nigerian Championships – 1st and Overall
1989 Mr. Barbados – 1st
1984 California Gold Cup Classic – 1st
1983 Teen Los Angeles – 1st
1982 American Cup – 2nd

Didn’t Vic Richards compete in all of these shows? Under no one heres definitions would Richards NOT be considered a bodybuilder.[/quote]

lol, you have to admit, he got ya there ID, ;)[/quote]

You know gregron has love for ID… I just couldnt resist [/quote]

No, I’m talking about NOW. Although not onstage anymore, he still lifts and looks like a bodybuilder, so he IS a bodybuilder.

If I were to accept that anyone who once stepped onstage in the past but now doesn’t is still a bodybuilder - even though he no longer lifts nor looks like a bodybuilder - I would have to accept that Arnold is still a bodybuilder.
But he is not.

Love ya back, Greg. Seriously.
[/quote]

He is still a bodybuilder he is just a retired bodybuilder.

147

I agree with Gregron and I think Joe DeFranco said the same thing. “You can be as big as a house and if you can’t run a 10 minute mile or under you’re out of shape.” Something to that effect. I recently killed a mile in 8:09 and couldn’t be prouder! (5:25 was my record when I was younger and lighter) I value having size and looking asthetically put together, but if I can’t jump in the ring and mix it up kickboxing for rounds without sucking wind I feel like a fatass.

I don’t call myself a bodybuilder…my workout routine is a hybrid of athletic programming mixed with bodybuilding programing. I kind of split the two down the middle, I still want to look good but I want to perform just as good as I look. I think you can have size and performance/conditioning. That’s my goal. I could care less what category it puts me in…

148

As far as the notion that the exercises and the methologies on here are garbage to bodybuilding and physique enhancment, I think that’s jumping too far. I do agree that the old stuff works and has been working for a long time. I don’t subscribe to the “If it’s not broke don’t fix it” mentality tho. I’m always looking for that more economical use of time, that better method to make me that much better. I think that’s what the aim is with T-Nation. Not to piss on the gold nuggets of the past, but to mine new ones for the future. Thats why they call it the Training Lab. It’s an educated experiment testing product, different methologies and exercises to get to the same goal in a different way.

These different methods might be easier for some people in different ways…or better based on that particular person’s current situation. I think if T-Nation increased more traditional bodybuilding articles and subject matter to balance out the “new wave” stuff more people might accept it. That way they are forward thinking and traditionally informative all at the same time.

149

[quote]anonym wrote:

[quote]Mike T. wrote:

The gym is my sanctuary, the weights are my prayer bench…[/quote]

This is my shaker bottle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My shaker bottle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my shaker bottle is useless. Without my shaker bottle, I am useless.[/quote]

LOL that was good.

150

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

But if we consider bodybuilding a sport, then to be one you have to have competed in the sport at some level at least one time. IMO ofcoarse. [/quote]

^I think this is an interesting point. Is the actual competition the sporting aspect, or is it the training and prep leading up to the actual contest? And if so, what about a ‘baseball player’ who trains all off-season in preparation of his big day with a pro team, but then due to some unforeseen circumstance never ever end up playing a single actual game. Can he call himself a baseball player?

(I"m actually enjoying reading the intelligent opinions in this thread)

S[/quote]

In my opinion, the actual competition is the both, the training/prep leading up to the contest and the contest itself. I consider myself a bodybuilder, even though I haven’t competed in 12 years but am now in prep for a fall contest. One could argue that I was just lifting weights for the last 12 years. However, I was using that time to get better and wiser.

Ultimately, I think anyone who works to maximize their muscle size and definition is a bodybuilder. Some make it their profession, some their hobby - all with varying degrees of motivation and skill.

151

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
According to some of you, Vic Richards is NOT a bodybuilder.[/quote]

What are you talking about.

Richards competed in the late 80’s/early 90’s if i recall correctly.

He’s a bodybuilder.

152

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

But if we consider bodybuilding a sport, then to be one you have to have competed in the sport at some level at least one time. IMO ofcoarse. [/quote]

^I think this is an interesting point. Is the actual competition the sporting aspect, or is it the training and prep leading up to the actual contest? And if so, what about a ‘baseball player’ who trains all off-season in preparation of his big day with a pro team, but then due to some unforeseen circumstance never ever end up playing a single actual game. Can he call himself a baseball player?

(I"m actually enjoying reading the intelligent opinions in this thread)

S[/quote]

I would say that the baseball player would call himself an ametuer baseball player because he would have had to played the game competitively to get to that point in the first place. He could not call himself a pro baseball player though (well he could, but he would be misrepresenting himself.)

A bodybuilder that diets down for a competition but the day before the show gets injured in my opinion would not be considered a bodybuilder yet. I would call them someone aspiring to be a bodybuilder. If this person was serious enough to get that far though, I would imagine that they would compete at some point unless the injury was career ending.

I can definitely see where there is a gray area on where the actual sporting aspect of it is, from the offseason training, the prep, the on stage posing, and so on. But in my mind for someone to walk around and say they are a bodybuilder they should have experience in every part of the sport, from offseason training to the awards ceremony atleast one single time.

153

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
here, Ill put it another way…

i trained at some pretty hard core dungeon gyms when I was younger and competing in PL and OLing.

there were lots of “bros” that were big and strong, but never competed. often after a contest, they would ask how i did, i would tell them, and the responses often were like:

“thats all you benched/squatted/pulled? hell, i could do more than that, i have done more than that just the other day, i should have entered that meet”

blah blah…

well it takes a lot more to be a PL than just to bench squat and deadlift heavy. you have to prepare yourself to do be your best at all three on the same day, while making weight, and perform when your name is called, not when you are ready, and to perform to the satisfaction of judges, etc.

cant tell you how many times i was nursing an injury while training for a meet, and come meet day, on at least one of my lifts i was not 100%

its one thing to train regularly and have a particularly good day at the gym when you are feeling good, nothing is sore and hurting, had plenty of rest, etc. and hit a big number on one of the lifts, it is quite another to prepare yourself to do your best and hit prs in all three lifts on a predetermined day under competition rules/judging standards.

hope that made sense. [/quote]

Good point I agree completely.

Also lol @ anonyms post.

154

[quote]anonym wrote:

[quote]Mike T. wrote:

The gym is my sanctuary, the weights are my prayer bench…[/quote]

This is my shaker bottle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My shaker bottle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my shaker bottle is useless. Without my shaker bottle, I am useless.[/quote]

“We’ll let the gooks play the indians!”

155

[quote]FrozenNinja wrote:
As far as the notion that the exercises and the methologies on here are garbage to bodybuilding and physique enhancment, I think that’s jumping too far. I do agree that the old stuff works and has been working for a long time. I don’t subscribe to the “If it’s not broke don’t fix it” mentality tho. I’m always looking for that more economical use of time, that better method to make me that much better. I think that’s what the aim is with T-Nation. Not to piss on the gold nuggets of the past, but to mine new ones for the future. Thats why they call it the Training Lab. It’s an educated experiment testing product, different methologies and exercises to get to the same goal in a different way.

These different methods might be easier for some people in different ways…or better based on that particular person’s current situation. I think if T-Nation increased more traditional bodybuilding articles and subject matter to balance out the “new wave” stuff more people might accept it. That way they are forward thinking and traditionally informative all at the same time.[/quote]

Great post!

156

To my mind, BB mostly comes down to just three things: discipline and trial-and-error (learning what works for oneself) and discipline

(and of course genetics, which loom large but don’t quite fall under the same application-based umbrella, obviously)

157

To me you are a bodybuilder once you train, diet, tan, get in a man thong, and flex up on stage.

You are a powerlifter once you train, diet, cut weight as needed, and compete up on the platform.

You are a strongman once you train, diet, train some more, and get out on the field and compete.

Until you get on stage, on the platform, or out in the field, you are just a gym rat. Nothing wrong with a gym rat but don’t call yourself something you aren’t. I’m not a baseball player just because I went to the batting cages to dick around am I? Heck no.

158

[quote]Quasi-Tech wrote:
I’m sincerely bothered that all of the guys posting articles look average and none of them look exceptional to the sport/science by which they are writing (save maybe a few).

That’s like going to see a dietician and its some 300lb fatty whose sitting there eating a box of Krispy Kremes. I can understand that folks can have knowledge and not be a shining example of what they know… but if this is your passion, your life, and what pays your damned bills, then why aren’t you the best advertisement for your business?
[/quote]
This bothers me a lot as well. If you’re program works so well why do so many of them look so freaken average? I really don’t care what some lab tech has to say if it hasn’t translated over to the real world.

I have now stopped reading articles that aren’t by Tate, Wendler. or Meadows.

159

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[quote]CrewPierce wrote:

[quote]Quasi-Tech wrote:
I’m sincerely bothered that all of the guys posting articles look average and none of them look exceptional to the sport/science by which they are writing (save maybe a few).

That’s like going to see a dietician and its some 300lb fatty whose sitting there eating a box of Krispy Kremes. I can understand that folks can have knowledge and not be a shining example of what they know… but if this is your passion, your life, and what pays your damned bills, then why aren’t you the best advertisement for your business?
[/quote]
This bothers me a lot as well. If you’re program works so well why do so many of them look so freaken average? I really don’t care what some lab tech has to say if it hasn’t translated over to the real world.

I have now stopped reading articles that aren’t by Tate, Wendler. or Meadows.
[/quote]
As an example this guy just wrote an article on training variations for mass.

Thanks…I’ll stick to the normal barbell exercises and machines which have been producing professional bodybuilders and powerlifters for years.

Anyone ever hear or see of Coleman, Cutler, or Wendler doing DB kneeling lift to press? Yea didn’t think so.

160

[quote]audiogarden1 wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
According to some of you, Vic Richards is NOT a bodybuilder.[/quote]

What are you talking about.

Richards competed in the late 80’s/early 90’s if i recall correctly.

He’s a bodybuilder. [/quote]

Read on from that post. I explain myself clearly.