Comments on: The Myth Of The Unathletic Bodybuilder

By: Crimmur

Crimmur — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 01:50:40 +0000

My problem with bodybuilding is that in a way it feels the same way women feel forced to look a certain way. Especially for male teens, there is the pressure to look a certain way to validate themselves among their peers which causes all sorts of body image issues and it is bound to be this way because, after all, bodybuilding is about looks and they are judged for their looks on a stage which certainly has more to do with narcissism/vanity than sports.

I know a few bodybuilders and I can confirm that in many cases, the drive is the looks and sometimes a sort of sexual stimulus that exhibiting your body nearly naked provides to many bodybuilders be it because it makes them feel superior (sexually) or because they enjoy the reactions they seen in people’s faces in the audience.

By: evilcyber

evilcyber — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 18:57:52 +0000

In reply to Dr. J. True. Yet I think that Wolf essentially was right: as a bodybuilder, you can't have size without strength, much as powerlifters have to find out they can't have strength without size.

By: Dr. J

Dr. J — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:26:19 +0000

I tend to feel that the best athletes in a sport have maximized their bodies to the sport that they compete in. For example a friend of mine had a BMI of around 16 when she was a two time winner of the Boston Marathon with some of the fasted times ever!

By: Kint Verbal

Kint Verbal — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:49:29 +0000

Ok one more: have you ever seen a top ATHLETE that is built like a bodybuilder? Boxer? Anything?

Right, no.

By: Kint Verbal

Kint Verbal — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:09:47 +0000

Bwaaahahaaa. 2 words for you:

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Now go cry.

By: shrenik

shrenik — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:18:19 +0000

again an unrelated question but couldnt find a better place to post it,sorry
1)so is it ok to use the smith machine in exercises which have a very small ROM like the calf raises..problem is that i dnt have a calf raise machine and there isnt anyother way i can think of doing weight calf raises..also a calf raise machine would work similar to a smith machine-i.e avoid stablisers and have an unnatural path(maybe)
2-u always say that the smitch roughly allows u to use twice the weight as its a counterweight machine but i tried it(didnt have a spotter than) and i could lift only like a 3 kgs in addition to what i use with a freeweight barbell-is it bcos i normally dnt use a smith machine and my body isnt accustomed to that kind of movement and thereby lifts only a small portion of what it can(im other words.less motor unit recruitment cos am smith pressing for the first time in my life) 😀

By: Ahmet

Ahmet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:52:00 +0000

Not every bodybuilder is a succes that is true. Thanks.

By: edfdfdfdsfd

edfdfdfdsfd — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:50:21 +0000

I can bench 100kg 10 reps: deadlift 135kg 5 reps, sqaut 120kg 8 reps I don’t have a max rep. And I can run 12 miles and i’m the best for welsh athletics in 1500ms and 2nd in 800ms arnie can’t do that nor can any olyimpian. I train with great Britain athletes and my coach is Former GB 800m world champion. my other coach holds British record for 75kg+ women

By: AduhAwas

AduhAwas — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:32:34 +0000

Great read!

By: the_wolf

the_wolf — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:17:31 +0000

In reply to Yoko.

Thanks, Yoko!

I agree with your final point (that anyone can achieve a good body), but don’t think that bodybuilding is, like a sport, so much different than the other sports. It does, however, have two traits that make it quite different from the rest of the “sports population”.

First thing is the implied perseverance of its trainees. Seeing someone and thinking that he looks good from a bodybuilding perspective often implies a decade, if not more, of hard work being put into that achievement. Saying that you’ve been training for 10 years in other sports is something that makes people go “Wow!”, yet nobody seems to appreciate that same time frame being spent on bodybuilding training.

The second thing has to do with our sport being highly subjective. When does someone start looking good, or great, or becomes successful as a bodybuilder varies a lot across the bodybuilding population, and even more among outsiders. Other sports, however, use a stricter model at measuring success – e.g., if I compete at high jumping, you know that I’ll be better if I jump over a higher bar. There’s no such thing in bodybuilding, and this kind of blurs the effect of talent, or genetics, onto our perception of bodybuilding success, and, as I had shown in the Issues of perspective article, genetics in bodybuilding matters – a lot.

So, yes, everyone can get a good body, but competing and going elite still requires having awesome genetics, alongside taking a path much worse than required in other sports. And, of course, this body will have years upon years of work put into its refinement, a period which vastly outreaches the amount of time that trainees usually put into a sport.