I got into weightlifting to improve my combat sports, but when I realized I was getting prettier, it took on a bodybuilding element for me. I know a lot of our trans comrades also use body building to help make their bodies signal the correct gender.
That said, I worry about it sometimes. The "ideal" male physique is heavily shaped by media featuring steroid users. While most people think Arnold looks gross, they don't realize that most actors are bodybuilding and on steroids, and think of an intermediate bodybuilder's body as being lean, athletic and attainable. Like, google "toned man" and see what comes up. It's all steroid users at like 10% bodyfat.
It's a body that is technically attainable, but only if you make fitness your main hobby, which is frankly not something I think most people should do. Most people's health would be properly served by eating their veggies and biking to the subway, which is a far cry from the 6+ hrs a week in the gym most bodybuilders do. That's just for able bodied people with high executive function. Add in neurodivergence and disability and the "ideal" body is literally unobtainable.
I want to be pretty, but I also don't want to contribute to inaccessible beauty norms. This is a tension that I'm not sure has a good answer, but I at least want to hear chacha's thoughts on it.
We should celebrate what bodies can do, not so much how they appear. Any body shape is a good shape if you can manage to move it the way you want to.
My body when I could do a dozen pull-ups looked very similar to my body when I couldn't manage one pull-up. If I got to the point where I could do a one-handed pull-up with a 50-pound backpack on, my body might look different, but it wouldn't be that much more useful than simply being able to do the regular pull-ups. Moreover, it would require a lot of extra protein and calories to attain and maintain. So in a way, conventional bodybuilding is a wasteful kind of conspicuous consumption.
I like this framing. Do you think I should stop doing vanity exercises like lateral raises, or should I do them, and revel in my ability to lift grocery bags up onto the conveyor?
If you have a base-line of an internal self-image that you need your body to match, then by all means work out until your body matches it.
Idk, if you can come up with an everyday use for it, it's probably worth doing. In contrast, I can't think of many likely situations where being able to lift 500 pounds would make or break someone.
Being able to Deadlift has made moving shit so much easier for me lol. Plus, those are a lot of the muscles you used to throw a fascist to the concrete in self defense.
Fair enough.
Personally I'm mostly going to stick to my calisthenics though.