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.
Steroid use isn't, but the kind most people engage in is. Most health guidelines suggest both cardio and resistance training, and weights are a great way to get resistance training.
Some specific lifts like deadlift are good for back pain, and some like rows and pullups are good for posture.
I don't mean weightlifting, which can obviously be fine, I mean bodybuilding - i.e. deliberately adding significant extra muscle to your body.
Are there doctors that will say bodybuilding is a healthy activity? Seems like it would be pretty unhealthy for your heart.
I mean, bodybuilding is just weight lifting with an emphasis on doing lots of sets of isolation movements, as opposed to a few sets of compounds movements. Both make you stronger, and most people do both. Powerlifters do bodybuilding so they have more muscle to use, and bodybuilders do power lifting so they can do their isolation heavier.
Most people also dont just gain and gain and gain, they cut fat periodically so they're not a ton heavier, they're just replacing fat mass with muscle mass.
It's only really with steroid use that you start to get unhealthy amounts of muscle packed on, most people have a genetic limit to how big their muscles will get.
IDK about muscle itself but I know that show-prep shit where you starve and dehydrate is awful for you.
It's extremely healthy, yes
I assume you're talking about weight training
Doing the whole steroid and dehydrating yourself to show off a fancy definition on camera isn't really good for you
Just lift
Skip steroids. Stay hydrated
Just lift
I see bodybuilding in the same way as body modding; a bit like tattoos, piercings, etc. In other words it's not done to set a standard or to appeal to anyone other than themselves and others who are into that scene.
but the bodybuilding scene is so unhealthy, I'm talking about those mass monsters, but even those aesthetic guys are taking a lot of gear. Professional bodybuilding is pretty much first world decadence, these guys have to eat constantly, I watched a video with Jay Cutler once, and he has to eat high protein meats several times a day. You can tell eating for him was a chore.
is pretty much first world decadence
I think we should be working to achieve a world where everyone can have this level of decadence, and direct it in any way they want. Now problem is doing this while not destroying the planet and while getting rid of a lot of the useless commodities we have.
I mean it in the broad sense, the the people who bulk in winter and cut in spring so they can get a beach bod
It's always interesting to me as well, looking at actual weightlifters, stongmen/women, ect. and how they often don't visually look that strong. They don't usually look weak, mind. But, like, they literally have min/maxed being able to be strong, and the body-builder look is just so ingrained in our minds as what 'strength' is, along side the cultural notion that 'fat=lazy and weak', that the usual bearish-type build of top class weightlifters doesn't seem like that is how that works. As if not having the absolute minimum amount of body fat and hydration has any impact on your musculature.
I don't lift for aesthetics, I lift for general well-being. Sitting long hours without any sport to balance that out is painful for me after a while. I get back issues, hip issues, all kinds of annoying ailments that just don't happen to me when I lift regularly. In a way, I consciously build a certain body, sure - but I'm exclusively focused on functionality. Lot's of complex lifts for generally applicable strength that make everyday tasks easier and keep me in a painless posture, barely any isolation exercises at all.
I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case I feel like it's a sort of compensating for all the shit I got as the fat kid in elementary. There are better reasons to work out, I suppose, but if I need to leverage some of the dark shit in order to feel better about my body, then so be it.
Lifting is good for your body long term. Our bodies get very weak as we age, a consistent weight lifting program with proper technique (most important) is important.
As long as you aren't taking juice and lying about it when being asked, I see no real problem.
Has anyone in the history of the world ever said Arnold looks gross? The guy won Mr. Olympia, like 10 times
Do people actually think this? I mean he's an old man now, but come on, even now he looks better than most 73-year-olds. Is part of it incredible wealth and privilege? Sure. But the guy still works out an hour every day. Why wouldn't you?
And to your other point, just work out. Skip the steroids, skip the dehydration. Just do cardio and lift weights. It isn't hard and it's really, really good for you. Your mental and physical health will increase dramatically if you exercise and maintain fitness
I know lots of people who are grossed out by Mr. Olympia. Twinks are in, hunks are out.
Duh I'm gonna lift, I'm also probably gonna do vanity stuff like lateral raises.
I'm more interested in how we talk about vanity lifts and if it's reinforcing inaccessible beauty norms
This is the use case for strong man training. Eat big, get big. Become the hexbear.
Do whatever makes you feel good and be happy. I know most body aestetic building has low translation to combat sports. However if it makes you happy and feel confident that has a high translation to combat sports so get it comrade.
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.
