This obsession with muscle building

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

Truth. That is why I do fitness and fight my hair loss at the same time.

[Candide]

Up to a point, yes, but the physique that most guys in the US are aiming for, the one that appears on the front of every fitness magazine published in the last two decades, is a wholly artificial creation. You can only get it (if at all) with the use of a sophisticated gym, and usually a bit of help from drugs. People look at the physiques of Hollywood guys like Zach Ephron, and what they don't realise is that these guys' job is to work out. They spend every hour they have in the gym with a personal trainer, and they live on protein and supplements, to keep looking the way they do, because it is their livelihood (and let's face it, they don't usually have much acting talent).

The problem is that people can't always distinguish between Hollywood and reality, so it sets a worryingly unrealistic benchmark for the average guy. It's the same with hair. Practically everyone in the film industry is supplementing their natural hair with toupees and extensions, which makes the rest of us look inadequate by comparison.

I'm grateful that these trends are far less extreme in Europe.

[polios]

It is really a pity that we do not see many actors with hair loss who then cover it up. I would love to see some more actors like Nicolas Cage, not only bad-ass guys like Jason Statham that should feed some stereotype.