Where Did 'Bodybuilders are Weak' Start?

Off Topic
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[quote]goochadamg wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]stockzy wrote:
The only time i ever hear bodybuilders called weak is on the internet. I can’t remember the last time someone called bodybuilders weak and i’m around these functional idiots all the time.
The only people i know of that care about being called weak are on the internet. I’m in gyms 10 - 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and i never have this discussion???[/quote]

That doesn’t mean the thought isn’t there. It just means they are too scared to say shit in public. That may be WHY you only hear it on the internet. I mean, I don’t hear anyone calling me fat anywhere but here either or ever saying half the shit I see getting typed on screen often.

Perhaps it is like those people who honk at you in their cars but who wouldn’t have the balls to say, “excuse me” if they were standing right behind you in line at the grocery store.

People get much more bold when they think there is no risk of personal damage.[/quote]

I read the one thread on bodybuilder.com, that comes up when searching for “bodybuilders are weak” on google, and honestly, it just reeks of insecurity. “This guy looks great, and I look like shit, but whatever, he’s WEAK.” It appears as if they’re just seeing what they want to see.

I don’t think anyone would say it in public because of fear they’d quickly be proven wrong. Then they’d have one less external thing to make them feel “good” about themselves: they’re no longer stronger than that big uselessly muscled bodybuilder.

These are only my impressions from that one specific thread, which is the only place I’ve ever seen this discussed.

In any event, I don’t think this is a widely held belief. The general public will associate big muscles with strength, in my experience.[/quote]

I think you underestimate people’s ability to delude themselves. I betcha 90%+ of the “functional fitness”/crossfit types (of which I have been one of, so I’ve talked to them) are judgmentally making up a story in their heads about in what respect they are stronger/healthier/more-fit than the body builder.

We’ve become a culture that’s afraid of admiring real, tangible accomplishment. Where it’s easier to admire the kettle-buy guy for the shit he talks, and what he claims he has done/can do, than admire the guy lifting next to you for actually accomplishing something real, right there.

There’s a guy at my gym who obsessively talks about trying to get smaller so he can be a better boxer (not like, I need to make weight for a fight next week, like I want to walk around 50ilbs under weight). Despite that, most of his workouts revolve around the “big lifts”, and he’s only too ready to give everyone in the gym “pointers” on how to grow because “it’s be really easy if I [he] wanted to”.

102

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Yet it had to be explained.

I think anyone looking at someone that big and ASSUMING they can’t at least defend themselves to some degree is retarded.

I see blood daily. I can also throw a punch and have trained in martial arts before although haven’t kept it up like I have in the past.

This is about those who truly think big muscles equal “weak and defenseless”.

Anyone dumb enough to go into a fight with ANYONE and underestimate their opponent deserves to lose teeth.

I’ll just charge extra to fix them.[/quote]

You take this internet shit way too personally.

I remember a Dave Tate article a while back where he recalled going into bodybuilding in his late teens early 20s. He said that when he came back to powerlifting he was surprised to find that his total had dropped by quite a bit. Some might take this to mean that bodybuilding training makes you weaker than you were before.

We know this is not true, but critical thinking is not the average person’s strong suit.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
Frank Zane -
Date of Birth: June 28th, 1942

Height: 5’9

Off Season Weight: 200 lbs.

Competition Weight: 185 lbs.

While respected across the board, Frank Zane wouldn’t even win a NPC contest today with those proportions, especially since he would likely weigh even less in that state today due to the competitive need to be way more dried out and lean than any of the guys were in the 60’s…which means he would likely weigh closer to 170-175lbs today at 5’9" in contest shape which doesn’t exactly stand out like it used to.

So, no, he likely was not benching 400lbs for reps…because he wasn’t carrying enough size.

You can’t compare Frank Zane to even Columbo…and damn sure not to guys like Heath, Greene and others today.[/quote]

or him

104

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
I remember a Dave Tate article a while back where he recalled going into bodybuilding in his late teens early 20s. He said that when he came back to powerlifting he was surprised to find that his total had dropped by quite a bit. Some might take this to mean that bodybuilding training makes you weaker than you were before.

We know this is not true, but critical thinking is not the average person’s strong suit.[/quote]
This.
People will take 1 little thing they see on the internet, and it’ll form they’re whole view of the topic. Then they’ll post their view on a forum, where similar-minded people will agree with them, without thinking critically, just citing other random crap off the internet. So, bodybuilding leading to a drop in the big 3 becomes ‘bodybuilding makes you weak’, and mind-muscle connection becomes ‘you can curl 20’s forever and grow as long as you ‘feel’ the weight’.

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[quote]Spartiates wrote:

[quote]goochadamg wrote:
I read the one thread on bodybuilder.com, that comes up when searching for “bodybuilders are weak” on google, and honestly, it just reeks of insecurity. “This guy looks great, and I look like shit, but whatever, he’s WEAK.” It appears as if they’re just seeing what they want to see.

I don’t think anyone would say it in public because of fear they’d quickly be proven wrong. Then they’d have one less external thing to make them feel “good” about themselves: they’re no longer stronger than that big uselessly muscled bodybuilder.

These are only my impressions from that one specific thread, which is the only place I’ve ever seen this discussed.

In any event, I don’t think this is a widely held belief. The general public will associate big muscles with strength, in my experience.[/quote]

I think you underestimate people’s ability to delude themselves. I betcha 90%+ of the “functional fitness”/crossfit types (of which I have been one of, so I’ve talked to them) are judgmentally making up a story in their heads about in what respect they are stronger/healthier/more-fit than the body builder.

We’ve become a culture that’s afraid of admiring real, tangible accomplishment. Where it’s easier to admire the kettle-buy guy for the shit he talks, and what he claims he has done/can do, than admire the guy lifting next to you for actually accomplishing something real, right there.
[/quote]

Yes, but 90% of the “functional fitness”/crossfit types is a VERY small proportion of the population.

When you speak of “We’ve become a culture” who are you referring to? The general “exercise” crowd or the general public (and even then, in the US? Rural? Metro?)?

I think this idea that “bodybuilders are weak” is coming from such a tiny group of people, that, frankly, who gives a shit.

In general, a person who sees someone with big muscles will assume they’re strong. You can all calm down now; the majority of people still think you’re a beast. :wink:

[quote]Spartiates wrote:
There’s a guy at my gym who obsessively talks about trying to get smaller so he can be a better boxer (not like, I need to make weight for a fight next week, like I want to walk around 50ilbs under weight). Despite that, most of his workouts revolve around the “big lifts”, and he’s only too ready to give everyone in the gym “pointers” on how to grow because “it’s be really easy if I [he] wanted to”.[/quote]

Yes. I’ve seen this “guy.” I had one of these dudes squeeze my hand, to show how “strong” his grip was, despite his size. Now, I didn’t squeeze back, because, frankly, it was fucking weird; until the second him he did it, and he went “ow shit.”

Anyway. These people are a tiny portion of the population. It’s not some huge stereotype.

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[quote]goochadamg wrote:

Anyway. These people are a tiny portion of the population. It’s not some huge stereotype.[/quote]

How do you think most people at your typical 24 Hour Fitness type Gym classify themselves? I mean, what do you think they tell themselves they’re doing?

It seems like there are a couple big guys, who seriously lift to get big, a couple chunky power lifter type guys, some high-school athletes/sports particular guys. What are the other 60-80% thinking when they are there?

I’m probably way off, because I’ve become fairly anti-social (especially at the gym), but I sort of assumed most people who are there lifting light-weights, and spinning on the machine twice a week, would consider themselves “reasonable” practitioners of some sort of “functional fitness” approach.

Maybe they have no workout real objective at all… and I’m giving them too much credit.

107

Yup - giving them too much credit.

108

[quote]Loudog75 wrote:
Yup - giving them too much credit.[/quote]

For realz. The average person doesn’t know what the hell they are doing.

The average person is doing leg presses on the straight leg calf raise machine.

The average person sees someone really big and immediately thinks something negative as a defense mechanism because not doing so would force them to examine what the hell they have been doing for the past 5 years with the on and off training…so the average person says, “I live in the real world and don’t have time…so those big guys must be dumb, uneducated, and jobless with no responsibilities”.

To think the average person actually has a set plan in place or that they are actually reaching goals is a joke.

109

[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
I saw a bodybuilder in the gym the other day lifting what I considered exceedingly light weights for his size. He handled them with perfect form, under control and was not working all that hard despite the high reps.

My first thought was not that he was weak, but that he was probably taking a recovery or light cycle. Someone else might dismiss him as being weak if they don’t understand the strategy of cycling of weights and reps in long term training.[/quote]

you should see me when i work on rehab for my rotator cuffs. I’m WAY down on the left had side of the dbell rack with the old ladies. funny.

110

i remember i used to be one of those kids who believed that bodybuilders were weak when i was in high school. it almost saddens me to say that we pretty much believed anything anyone said in the gym so when guys who were stronger than us told us that bodybuilders were “just full of water” (when its pretty much the exact opposite on stage), we would fucking believe it!

Its only been recently that i’ve actually started going upto the guys who are training for bodybuilding and start asking them about how they train and whether their diet is structured or not. These are the guys who have actually benefited my training regiem more than anything.

111

We can’t stop people believing what they want. Stereotyping will always be a part of society. Ignorants will always think and talk trash…that’s just the way it is. Bodybuilding has been uder fire by the media and fitness propaganda for a long time but it still survives. It’s the biggest sport/hobby/interest/addiction in the world.

Throughout the planet millions of men, women, teenagers (and animals?) lift weights with the goal of having big, strong muscles. In my opinion serious bodybuilders are the strongest Athletes in the world. No other sport requires as much discipline,mental toughness, physical fortitude and stamina. It doesn’t matter if your style of training is high volume with light weights or high intensity with heavy weights…if you are a bodybuilder, you are a BAMF in my eyes.

Strength is relative. The bodybuilder might not be able to deadlift 500 kgs for 2 reps, but the powerlifter can’t shoulder press a 100 kg barbell for 20 reps in 10 sets…see what i mean?

It’s what YOU believe that matters. YOU live your life…you know you are strong. You are the one giving his blood,sweat and tears to his sport. SO what if some morons call you weak…are you gonna lose sleep over it??Fuck them, you would rip them apart in a locked up cell if they were in there with you…let them talk, that’s all they are good for