This obsession with muscle building

[kadze]

muscules (I am not talking about crazily pumped mosnters) are assotiated with good nutrition and overall state of health. Just as hair. So it is pretty natural for men to look after themselves in this regard just as you care about hair.

[polios]

The obsession really got crazy in the 90s when it became also popular in Hollywood to show of some trained bodies. Before that it was just something for freaks like Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallon. I hope it will becomes less of a trend in the next 10 years or so.

[fred970]

There is nothing like the sort of obsession with gyms and muscle-building in Europe or Asia that there is in the United States, where every high school kid seems to feel duty bound to be in the weights room 4 nights a week. Interestingly, muscle-building and gym culture in Europe and Asia often seem to be associated with the gay community, and is part of a wider interest in personal appearance.

It is surprisingly how suddenly the muscle trend developed - very few people went to a gym before the 1980's. None of the male sex symbols of the 60's or 70's had six packs, or visible muscle of any sort. I wonder if it will disappear just as quickly in a decade or so's time.

This, a million times this. The guys from the US/UK here just refuse to believe what you just wrote.

In Europe, people and women will even see you as an overcompensating loser if you go to the gym, or someone who is too narcissistic and over-obsessed with his appearance.

[polios]

It is surprisingly how suddenly the muscle trend developed - very few people went to a gym before the 1980's. None of the male sex symbols of the 60's or 70's had six packs, or visible muscle of any sort. I wonder if it will disappear just as quickly in a decade or so's time.

I am also counting on modern sex symbols. There are actually a lot sex symbols who are not handsome because of their muscles but there is some other chemistry about them that just seems right. I would tell Benedict Cumberbatch is one of these.

[Candide]

There is nothing like the sort of obsession with gyms and muscle-building in Europe or Asia that there is in the United States, where every high school kid seems to feel duty bound to be in the weights room 4 nights a week. Interestingly, muscle-building and gym culture in Europe and Asia often seem to be associated with the gay community, and is part of a wider interest in personal appearance.

It is surprisingly how suddenly the muscle trend developed - very few people went to a gym before the 1980's. None of the male sex symbols of the 60's or 70's had six packs, or visible muscle of any sort. I wonder if it will disappear just as quickly in a decade or so's time.

[MikeM8]

It is a kind of addiction when you finish your workout and you feel some sort of trembling/growing in your muscles. Arnold described it in the documentary "Pumping iron".
So I guess that is why some people go to the gym so often they can barely fit through the door.

[ozkan]

Hi Polios,

Thanks. Yes indeed, that was a big operation. I am looking forward to seeing the results. I will posts some pics (before after) to relevant threads. By the way I have checked with my doctor. He says that I have to wait at least a month to do sport again. In fact this was one of his instructions after the operation. I have overlooked it somehow....

[polios]

Hi Guys,
Could you tell me please how long I should wait to hit the gym again?

Wow that is some big transplantation work! I believe you should ask a doctor about that. To be sure I would not go the gym as long as you are not allowed swim. Just my guess.

[ozkan]

fitness again

Hi Guys,

I have had a mega FUE HT operation ( a 2-day operation yielded in 6700 grafts) in Istanbul. Could you tell me please how long I should wait to hit the gym again?

Thanks,

[ozkan]

Hi Guys,

I have had a mega FUE HT operation ( a 2-day operation yielded in 6700 grafts) in Istanbul. Could you tell me please how long I should wait to hit the gym again?

Thanks,

[polios]

Can someone tell what other species works out in order to increase their mating value? Or even to improve their confidence? Do lions work out? Are lions that don't work out pussies to lionesses?!

Perhaps, that is true to some extent. It rather depends on genetics and perhaps in the stone age the genetically strong were just bigger than those who were hunting as hard and more attractive (because they could better hunt and protect). Nowadays, we do not get the same exercise we use to get. Manly working in offices and staying skinny that is why we can help our attractiveness so easily by working out and some choose to do it. -- That's at least my theory of this.

Of course I assume that muscles make you more attractive. I actually read some study that liberal woman do not care about muscles when it comes to attractiveness of men. Perhaps Belgium is more liberal in general...

[fred970]

Not really. I just have better things to do than lifting weights in front of a mirror, and I'm no less of a man because of that.

Even if you do it to get laid, working out is pointless because women judge you on your unalterable traits: height, natural frame, face, hair.

I've known men who went from skinny twink to roid-heads but were ugly. They got zero girl before getting into bodybuilding, and zero girl after.

So what's the point really? Oh you do it for yourself, right? For your confidence! For your health of course! Give me a break, we all know why men work out.

Can someone tell what other species works out in order to increase their mating value? Or even to improve their confidence? Do lions work out? Are lions that don't work out pussies to lionesses?!

Just get to a healthy weight, anything else you do will not make your life different than it would be if you had never set foot in a gym. That's the harsh reality.

[Jasari]

Am I the only one who doesn't get this whole obsession with building muscle (including abs etc), and prefers simply keeping a low body fat count and been thin? It just seems like so much effort, and tbh most of the results that come from bodybuilding and weight lifting (abs in particular) just look so unnatural and repulsive to look at. I'm saying that it's good to be overweight, or to be an obese slob, but my idea of a good look is to simply keep body fat to a minimum and achieve a natural lean look.

Generally if it requires hard work it's worth the effort. People are okay to keep their delusions and pretend that 'muscle' is undesirable but the reality is that it's the polar opposite and more or less the best thing you can do [Especially if you suffer hair loss].

To use the words 'repulsive' is the ultimate straw man. Those obscenely muscular men you see in magazines are a look that you will never achieve in ten lifetimes. That's the by product of serious genetics and a bucketload of steroids.

Guaranteed for 99% of the population the more muscle you can pack on your frame the better you'll look. I've been bulking and cutting for near on ten years [I'm now 28]. I've got a relatively large frame and I'm currently 85kg [185lb] at a lean body mass at 6'0.

If I had ten kilograms more muscle I'd look even better. No matter how much work I do the reality is that from here on out the gains will be limited to 2-3lb per year maximum.

The TLDR: When anyone says "I don't get the obsession with…" or "It's a pointless endeavour" what they're really saying is "I don't want to put in the hard work therefore I'll denigrate those who do".

[fred970]

I think about half of guys from their teens until their mid 30s go to gym. There is a clear obsession in Europe, too. It does not matter whether you are in the East, South or North.

Belgium, virtually no one goes to the gym here. And if you do, you will get laughed at.

[polios]

You Americans are so conceited, bodybuilding culture just doesn't exist here in Western Europe, no man, no woman, no one would give two shits about your muscular body here. Pretty much less than 0,5% of the male population goes to the gym.

I think about half of guys from their teens until their mid 30s go to gym. There is a clear obsession in Europe, too. It does not matter whether you are in the East, South or North.