Body building illusion??

Huffdogg

For the unaware Martin (first 2 pics) is actually quite strong himself if I'm not mistaken... Theres a video of him pulling 600 DL for reps

Yes, it is Martin, and he is definitely strong.

It may also be worth noting that a lot of people believe Martin is quite literally losing his mind, possibly from sustaining such a low bf% for so long.

LolBroScience

For the unaware Martin (first 2 pics) is actually quite strong himself if I'm not mistaken... Theres a video of him pulling 600 DL for reps

Yes, it is Martin, and he is definitely strong.

It may also be worth noting that a lot of people believe Martin is quite literally losing his mind, possibly from sustaining such a low bf% for so long.

Orly?

juliewatkin

Am I the only one wondering why some random man would presume to give an unsolicited lecture to the OP about his strength goals?

Weird.

ninerbuff

Absolutely there's truth to it. Aesthetics and strength are two totally different things, although you can train for strength in the gym just like you can train for aesthetics. They just require a different program.

THIS. As a natural bodybuilder myself for 30 years, I can tell you that people all the time ask me the one dumb question "how much do you bench?" and my answer usually is "I don't really know since I don't do 1 rep maxes". In fact I hardly ever flat bench. But even then the weight I use is pathetic compared to some people who are much stronger but lack chest shape which I most definitely have.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

FrnkLft

It depends on how you train. Some built their bodies by lifting heavy, others by constantly stressing their muscles lifting light. Both grew muscle, but the former adapted to heavier weights = stronger. But then, even the "light" guys are still stronger than when they started, they have grown muscle after all.

The only true "illusion" part at the end of the day though, is bodyfat %. A guy who gets his size from muscle will usually looks stronger than a guy who has fat all over him. That much is definitely just aesthetic (all health considerations aside).

mheebner

IMHO guys get into bodybuilding not necessarily to get strong, but to look good. They are strong just through the effort of working out but their main purpose is to look fantastic. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It takes a hell of a lot of dedication to sculpt a body that way, a lot of discipline.

Some guys have zero to very little interest in how they look and just want to be incredibly strong. Again there is nothing wrong with that either. And again it takes dedication and discipline to achieve the weight these guys are lifting.

It is weird that the old guy was offering you his opinion, but I do not agree that bodybuilders are not strong. The goals and end results are completely different so in my mind they are not comparable. At the gym I go to there are a lot of bodybuilder looking guys that are hella strong, and they look it as well. There are also small guys lifting ridiculous amounts of weights in DL, and squats.

Also, this isn't aimed at you, but my point was the majority of people will just assume the guy who looks like he has muscles is stronger, discounting the guy who looks like a random fat man (Hossein Rezazadeh) who is actually a complete beast. I consider this aspect the 'illusion'.

^^agree with this

Unknown

This content has been removed.

mheebner

Look at the really strong guys. They look fat, they do not look necessarily strong. Many oly lifters just look fat to me. They don't look strong at all. In street clothes, they'd just look like a fat person.

I think there's a lot of truth to what the old guy was saying. Strength, and how you look are not really related. I like how Jim Wendler discusses this in his books. Body building is purely aesthetics. Strength training can be aesthetic, but it doesn't have to be. I have heard that fat is strong. That's why the strong men competition guys are always kinda fat. Fat is strong. Or I should say, fat can be strong. Low body fat does not mean you are strong. It just reveals muscle that exists.

I have a question, are The Rock and Tom Hardy strong, or just aesthetically built?

Anyone who is putting in that kind of time in the gym is going to be strong. Powerlifting strong ?? No but that is not the goal. The Rock is strong, he can move massive amount of weight no question but his 'goal' is to look good, not lift more weight than the next guy.

Powerlifters are usually fat looking because of the insane amount of calories they are constantly taking in, and the fact that they are not interested in looking like a bodybuilder.

In the end it will always 'appear' that bodybuilders are the strongest of the strong, an illusion. We have been shown this from a media standpoint (movies, TV shows, etc) for what... 60 years? But that shouldn't detract from the fact that bodybuilder ARE strong, but not powerlifter strong.

bmqbonnie

Dang there was a meme circulating in my feed for a while that I can't find now. It had a pic of a pretty cut guy stacking hay onto a trailer and the caption said "you did 20 reps at the gym? That's cute".

I grew up on a farm and the country boys that did that sort of thing on a daily basis are the strongest people I know. The best shape I've ever been in was when I was (over)working on a horse farm where I worked 12 hour days with one day off per week, had about 15 stalls to clean each day, regularly stacked hay, saddled and rode horses, and was generally on my feet all day. I quit after two months but had lost weight and had more muscle definition than I ever had, and I have lifted heavy on and off through the years. I didn't "work out" once that whole time.

People aren't meant to sit around all day and then get up and do something for 30-60 minutes and go back to sitting around. My dad is 72 and very healthy because he's always finding something to do around the farm. Likewise a friend of mine that runs a breeding operation has a much healthier heart than our cop friend that would appear healthier, but does a lot more sitting around.

But we can't all do that. Lifting is still good for you, and absolutely necessary if you don't have the type of lifestyle to be that active. We should all try to get more activity into our day though. We were meant to roam and work for our food.

eric_sg61

Define strength, lifting something 1 time or lifiting something many times. Comparing laborers, construction worker, farmers etc to lifters is laughable. I know plenty of laborers that could outwork me, yet they can't bench, squat or dead anywhere near what I can do.......so again define strength? You get good at what you train for.

mheebner

That is a tricky question though....you are comparing two different types of 'strengths'. While a construction worker might not be able to squat and deadlift what you can, you might not be able to hold a 4x8 3/4 piece of drywall over your head and then nail it to ceiling joists.
So now are we going to get into 'gym strong' versus 'practical application strong' ? That is going to be a much tougher question than appearance and illusion

eta..I see you added the last sentence to your post...that is exactly the point I am making.

waldo56

To build muscles (as a natural) you have to keep getting stronger. And strength is specific to what you train, however having the cross sectional area will allow rapid progress on things you don't currently train.

The bodybuilding illusion is the illusion of leanness; as you lose body fat you will look smaller and smaller to a point, then you will start appearing larger as you continue to lose body fat. Natural bodybuilders often don't look that big in clothes; without clothes, with the aid of the illusion of leanness, they appear much larger.

DeltaZero

Choking elephants.


That's all I got out of this.

BigGuy47

Define strength, lifting something 1 time or lifiting something many times.

How about pull ups as a measure of strength.

Here's Jay Cutler banging away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN7XXCDqzVg

He almost gets his head over the bar a couple times.

jasonpclement

Good topic, I enjoyed this.

Bodybuidlers often isolate areas on their body that otherwise would see very little work. Lats for instance. Construction workers aren't going to be seeing a lot of direct work on that area. I think it would be very rate indeed to see a regular hard working joe that never hits the gym with a massive set of lats. But their cores will be very strong, from lifting awkward shaped heavy objects, and moving them through all three planes of motion. A lot of bodybuilders work primarily in the frontal plane of motion, which limits their strength when it comes to doing awkward things...like moving furniture, or swinging a large hammer.

Also, I agree...they often look small in full body clothes, but huge otherwise. Cool topic.

Huffdogg

For the unaware Martin (first 2 pics) is actually quite strong himself if I'm not mistaken... Theres a video of him pulling 600 DL for reps

Yes, it is Martin, and he is definitely strong.

It may also be worth noting that a lot of people believe Martin is quite literally losing his mind, possibly from sustaining such a low bf% for so long.

Orly?

Yeah I don't know if you follow him much at all but he became increasingly combative and ... less coherent over the course of a couple of years, and has almost completely abandoned his site.