Women and Thinness

Along the same lines, competitive escalation is a dynamic among women too. A well argued commentary in an audio file (NPR) about the pecularities of women's sizing:

Gaining Weight, Losing Perspective: When Sizes Grow
Obesity is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the United States. An estimated 30 percent of Americans are obese, and the number is going up. But commentator Lori Gottlieb observes that it's getting harder to tell how much weight you've gained -- if you're gauging by your pants size.

Lori Gottlieb is the author of Stick Figure and I Love You, Nice to Meet You.

Spanish fashion show rejects too-skinny models:
Women with very low body-mass index not allowed on runway

MADRID, Spain - Spain’s top fashion show has turned away a slew of models on grounds they are too skinny — an unprecedented swipe at body images blamed for encouraging eating disorders among young people.

Just not attractive, IMO

When Is Thin Too Thin?

Girls aged seven 'have anorexia'

Men lust for hourglass curves, say researchers

What Kind of Male Body Are Women After?

David Frederick of UCLA did a research study on male and female perspectives of body appearance. His study asked:

"Do representations of male muscularity differ in men’s and women’s magazines?"

Here is the abstract, or summary of his findings:

Men overestimate the degree of muscularity that is attractive to women, and women overestimate the degree of thinness that is most attractive to men. Consistent with the thesis that sociocultural input influences such body type preferences and beliefs, we postulated that magazines aimed at a male audience would portray a more muscular male body ideal than would magazines aimed at a female audience. Systematic comparison of popular magazines (Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness) revealed that the ideal male body marketed to men is more muscular than the ideal male body marketed to women.
We introduce the Physical Trait Overvaluation Hypothesis, which proposes that gender-specific media fuel emphasis on certain body parts in within-gender prestige competitions. The resulting competitive escalation creates a disconnect between the preferences of one gender and the personal aspirations of the other.

What does this mean? (From Men's Health, September 2004):

When rating desirability of varying builds for sexual partners, [325 college-age women] rated:

"average bodies as somewhat desirable;
muscular men as very desirable;
and extremely muscular men somewhere in between.
Least desirable: soft, fat guys."

"Frederick...says very brawny guys were viewed as likely to attract other women--and cheat."

Women associate pronounced muscularity with...
[+] dominance
[+] sexiness
[+] sexual ability and skill
[+] popularity
[+] ability to acquire resources and provide protection
[+] health and genetic fitness
[+] money and ambition

[-] decreased likelihood of sexual fidelity
[-] decreased sensitivity to their needs
[-] greater likelihood of narcissism and a bad temper

Note that whether or not women's associations are "correct or incorrect," or simply stereotypes, is a different subject.

Fun test for your degree of narcissism.

'Echo and Narcissus' 1903
John William Waterhouse

:|

Shrugs on a Standing Calf Raise Machine

I work my trapezius on the same day as shoulders (deltoids). I don't like doing barbell shrugs. It feels like I'm effectively taking a heavy bar and rubbing it up and down the front of my crotch.

So I do shrugs on a standing calf raise machine if I'm not using heavy dumbbells. This site calls it the "gripless shrug." It works the trapezius exactly the same way (straight up, straight down). Plus I don't have to deal with loading 2-3 plates on each side of the bar. It's much easier to just change the weight by moving the pin to the appropriate weight. Standing calf raise machines usually have 400 to 500 lbs available with the change of a pin. Loading the same amount onto a barbell is a waste of time and energy, IMO.

Also, I don't have to worry about my grip giving out later; I can save my grip strength for deadlift.

Steroid Cautionary Tale

Just to warn you, don't watch the video link below if you're squeamish or dislike needles. Yuck.

The subject of the video compares animal protein farts as a "small side effect" with "big side effects" from steroids as if there is any comparison. His ability to reason has left him, if he ever had one. Apparently, he has no conception of long-term consequences. From the way he speaks about it, it is obvious that he has always believed (falsely) that steroids are a "normal" or necessary part of bodybuilding. From his point of view, it's a given that people who want to build muscle will take steroids. Some people believe what they want to believe so they can do whatever the hell they want.

He's an exception among those "in the know." There are other juicers who would say that he was stupid and didn't take the drugs "correctly" which is to inject into his buttocks and use sterile technique. They're not much better than he is.

People who "correctly" abuse steroids end up saying things like this:

Confession of a steroid user
That (30 lbs of) muscle came at a price. I've spent close to $30,000 on steroids and now stay on them at least two-thirds of the year. I have masses of scar tissue in my glutes from hundreds of injections. People I meet are intimidated, and some automatically assume I'm a jerk, which I'm not. But that's all trivial compared with this: A few months ago, after a cycle in which I had used a lot of oral steroids to prepare for a contest, a blood test showed liver damage comparable to that of a hepatitis patient...

My liver has almost fully recovered, but now my wife wants me to quit. She says that at some stage I have to give up the idea of getting bigger and focus on my health, and I don't disagree. It's also getting harder to conceal my steroid use from the older of our two children.

Here's my advice to anyone considering steroids: Unless you're at or very near your maximum genetic potential, don't waste your time. Using steroids too soon will keep you from learning how to make gains without them. If you're under 23, you have no business juicing. Besides the fact you have enough natural testosterone, you could stunt your growth if you haven't reached your full adult height. Finally, most guys who set out to do "just one cycle" end up using steroids for years.

If you think you'll be the exception, you've just joined a very big club. Once you've started, it's tough to go back.

It's a personal choice, but one you have to think through as carefully as any other decision you make in life. Be sure you aren't going to let the desire to be huge take precedence.

It takes at least a year of hard lifting to even find out what kind of genetics you have. I learned that from Arnold's book and I agree with him. How many people give bodybuilding a sincere effort for a year or two in order to find out?

video link. yuck

Genetic Potential

Many people talk about "genetic potential" regarding one's natural ability to build muscle. Sometimes people use it as an excuse, "I don't have good genetics like that such-and-such a person." Making a determination like this, judging your body, but without doing any actual training, is not wise. Using "I don't have good genetics for muscle" as a rationalization ("good reason") to abuse steroids is not wise.

You cannot even know if you have good genetics for bodybuilding unless you do it sincerely. It takes a year or two of hard lifting to find out. Some people carry, under a layer of fat, muscles of high quality and potential.

"Gym in a bottle"

Here's another potential quick-fix in the works.

'Gym pill' for a no-work six-pack

Teams have been studying the genetic pathways controlling how muscle builds up and is broken down in the body.

Tests on rodents showed that manipulating these pathways can halt muscle wastage from disuse or disease.

At least three research groups have identified some of the genes responsible.

Alfred Goldberg and colleagues at Harvard University in the US and a pharmaceutical company Regeneron have found genes called atrogin1 and muRF1 that are active during muscle wasting.

A team at Purdue University, Indiana, has been * looking at a gene called erg1.

More hope for patients with Muscular Dystrophy and chronic wasting. It seems like we read about all these potential applications and "dream drugs" all the time and very few (almost none) actually make it to market. Yet there will likely be new supplements popping up based on this little bit of science news. Keep an eye out for them!

The upshot is that if they make drugs that affect these targets, people who juice can no longer rationalize steroid abuse with excuses like, "I take them only to maintain the muscle I do have."

"Yet, [he] has always maintained that he didn’t use steroids to bulk up, just to maintain his size when he was preparing for a contest."

What ever happened to treatments that will affect leptin? That was supposed to be the new "cure" for obesity.

*Please do not do what the individual is doing to this preacher curl apparatus with his armpit, if only for the sake of decorum, if not hygeine. It sounds like I'm joking till you notice how many guys wear sleeveless shirts in the gym. :|

Also, the guy in the photo has upper cross syndrome, IMO. If he doesn't fix it, it doesn't matter how much weight he curls.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Forced Reps and Cheat Curls

Forced repetitions are a way of completing a set that requires a spotter. The lifter attempts a certain number of repetitions (8-12) of a heavy weight. Usually he calls out the number, "I'm gonna try for X number of reps," so the spotter knows what to expect. I find that can be a self-fulfilling determination, but anyway...

The spotter helps the lifter by assisting with just enough help so that every repetition can be completed. Sometimes, it ends up that the lifter ditches his good form and the spotter gives so much assistance that it wasn't even worth completing the rep. The spotter ends up doing upright rows or curls. :| If you do every set with too much weight for yourself (for the sake of appearances) it's sort of an imposition on your lifting partner especially if he, the spotter, has to lift the bar off your chest. It might not be in the best interests of your partner to expend energy on activities besides actual lifting.

Some lifters always need a spotter because they always do forced reps. Someone else helps finish their last rep or two or three. Forced reps are a good way to stimulate growth but aren't necessary for every set that one does. There are many ways to complete a set, one way is to just eliminate rest between sets, supersets, or run the rack, or do 21's, or use a Smith machine, not a spotter. If you do forced reps all the time, stop. Do something else for a while because your body has already adapted. Do something else, like a machine circuit and you will be pleasantly surprised, I would bet.

Personal trainers tend to overdo forced reps. Maybe it helps the client feel more like the trainer is doing something besides just saying, "do this, do that." If you've only lifted with a trainer, but then go about it on your own, you might feel a need to continue doing forced reps. Why? Because you've done every set just like that, as forced reps, and the trainer is the ultimate authority, right? :|

Cheat curls are a variation of curls where extra "help" is given to the movement by swinging the hips, using any and every other muscle and momentum to get the weight up. It can contribute to growth since the completion of the movement means all the fibers are contracting. A cheat curl (singular) is useful sometimes to get the last rep finished. Sometimes the variety from very heavy cheat curls, maybe once a month or so is beneficial.

Cheat curls are terribly overdone. Some do all their curls as cheat curls. The ego requires lifting visibly "heavy" weights, even if the move is not done correctly and the pelvis swings like Elvis in Vegas. There should be a pause and hard contraction of the biceps at the top of the movement to maximize the benefits of each rep.

A repetition consists of: a concentric contraction [curl upward] and an eccentric contraction [lowering the weight back down]. Lowering the weight is also called "negative" movement. (Pronounced as, "ee-sen-tric")

Lowering the weight, or negative movements, build more muscle than moving the weight up. Doing the negative portion of the lift slowly so that it burns intensely is effective.

Standing with the heels, butt, shoulders, elbows, and head against a wall eliminates the possibility of cheating. Another helpful technique is to count: 2 seconds up-pause-2 seconds down, or 4 seconds up-pause-4 seconds down.

The Easy Rule of Life

All activities can be narrowed down into two (2) categories.

Activities that we simply do and don't require much thought for us, are easy.
Activities that we ruminate over, put off, or even fear, are difficult.

Some activities that are difficult for us, are easy for others. Some activities that are easy for us, are difficult for others.

Whether or not something is "difficult," depends on whether we've done it before or not. If we've done it a zillion times and are comfortable with it, it's "easy." It's all perception; in our minds.

In a book by Ernie Zelinsky called The Joy of Not Working, I found this little truism called

The Easy Rule of Life:

Do what is easy now --> Life ends up difficult later
Do what is difficult now --> Life ends up easy later

Zelinsky calls the Easy Rule of Life a "principle of the universe." I have a hard time disagreeing.

I have noticed that:

Things like exercise and saving money are usually considered "difficult" for many.
[leg and back exercises]
Things like not exercising and appearing wealthy are usually considered "easy" for many.
[curls and bench press, "mirror muscles"]

And I have found that:

Doing what is easy leads to...boredom
Doing what is difficult leads to...self-esteem

Then recall that what is "difficult," once we've actually given it a shot, after we've done it over and over, becomes easy. And so it goes, onto the next challenge.

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.
- Betty Bender

Weightlifting vs. Powerlifting

Bodybuilding is not powerlifting.

Powerlifting consists of 3 moves: Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift

Bodybuilding and powerlifting are not Olympic sports. Weightlifting is an Olympic sport.

Sometimes people say "weightlifting" when they are thinking, "lifting weights" or "weight training."

Weightlifting consists of 2 moves:

Snatch
(wiki)
(official rules)

Clean and Jerk
(wiki)

The moves are complex and difficult to perform correctly; an instructor is usually a requirement for learning them.



This article argues that weightlifting is the best workout there is because of the resulting strength gains and the rapid contraction of fast twitch muscle fibers. It includes a workout with exercises that work the muscles following those principles, but which are not as technically difficult as the snatch or clean and jerk.