EarlGrey
02-01-2005, 06:59 AM
(I'll say in advance that I don't really care what people think about "bodybuilding", I just ignore them, and don't let them annoy me.)
I just had a near argument with one of my fellow student who claimed that being in the gym and working out hard was very unhealthy.
Ignorant as he may be, I find this to be a very common misinterpretation of this sport.
This guy mentioed few examples:
a) "I saw an image of Arnold how he is today, and that just shows you how bad this sport it." - The image he's talking about was here on these forums, Arnold in a competetion vs. Arnold after a recent heart surgery. Totally out of context.
b) "Those big guys are just steroid freaks that die within 3-4 years because of heart failure." - Sure there are people who don't give a **** about their body and put whatever in it that makes it grow larger, but that's only a very small minority.
c) "When you got so big muscles you have to keep yourself in shape all your life, else you'll just get very fat." - True if you simply stop exercising some of the muscles will turn into fat. But what about all these 50-60 yearold people that are just 300lbs of fat and have never been in shape their whole life? Arnold looks great, Sean Connery looks great (he was bodybuilder), and a lot of famous people who were bodybuilders still look great in their 50's, 60's or 70's compared to others of that age!
I asked him if he trained at all, or did ANY exercising! He said he went bicycling, "sometimes". He warned him he could develope huge quads, and he should be very careful even when doing casual bicycling. He seemed to take me seriously, or maybe not.
There seems to be a huge misunderstanding and pre-judging of this sport. In some magazines or newspapers you can find images of guys like Ronnie Colman and the author simply expresses his "disgust" of his shape and asks if that's really what people think is "pretty".
Then you have parents. They will do anything to keep their kids away from stuff like whey protein, creatine, glutamine, dextrose and maltodextrin, they see it as something "illegal" or something that's bad for you. I'm 24 and even today my mom dislikes me mixing my PWO shake!
But they don't mind if you eat a KFC or a McDonalds meal.
Then you have the people at work who think you're a drug addict, a steroid frek, just because you keep some creatine at your workplace. Those same co-workers are themselves out-of-shape fatty slobs. Hell you can't take Vitamin-C without it being steroids in their mind /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif
And even in the GYM ITSELF you'll find resistance to your ideas. You'll see people staring at you doing squats, deadlifts or other compound exercises. I know I can't "read" their thoughts, but I sure can guess what they're thinking.
Maybe this is a geographical problem. I'm in Iceland and it seem the only sport that receives any "respect" is fitness, those thin a slim types with nice cut and tan, doing 100 pull-ups, push-ups and stuff like that.
Everyone want to lose weight and be slim like that, that's why people would never want to ADD to their weight like we bodybuilders do.
There is also one thing I heard, that they don't do drug tests here in Iceland for these competitions, so a lot of people who compete at these sports are on some drugs.
Oh well, I'm off to the gym now to show those people exactly how much I care /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I just had a near argument with one of my fellow student who claimed that being in the gym and working out hard was very unhealthy.
Ignorant as he may be, I find this to be a very common misinterpretation of this sport.
This guy mentioed few examples:
a) "I saw an image of Arnold how he is today, and that just shows you how bad this sport it." - The image he's talking about was here on these forums, Arnold in a competetion vs. Arnold after a recent heart surgery. Totally out of context.
b) "Those big guys are just steroid freaks that die within 3-4 years because of heart failure." - Sure there are people who don't give a **** about their body and put whatever in it that makes it grow larger, but that's only a very small minority.
c) "When you got so big muscles you have to keep yourself in shape all your life, else you'll just get very fat." - True if you simply stop exercising some of the muscles will turn into fat. But what about all these 50-60 yearold people that are just 300lbs of fat and have never been in shape their whole life? Arnold looks great, Sean Connery looks great (he was bodybuilder), and a lot of famous people who were bodybuilders still look great in their 50's, 60's or 70's compared to others of that age!
I asked him if he trained at all, or did ANY exercising! He said he went bicycling, "sometimes". He warned him he could develope huge quads, and he should be very careful even when doing casual bicycling. He seemed to take me seriously, or maybe not.
There seems to be a huge misunderstanding and pre-judging of this sport. In some magazines or newspapers you can find images of guys like Ronnie Colman and the author simply expresses his "disgust" of his shape and asks if that's really what people think is "pretty".
Then you have parents. They will do anything to keep their kids away from stuff like whey protein, creatine, glutamine, dextrose and maltodextrin, they see it as something "illegal" or something that's bad for you. I'm 24 and even today my mom dislikes me mixing my PWO shake!
But they don't mind if you eat a KFC or a McDonalds meal.
Then you have the people at work who think you're a drug addict, a steroid frek, just because you keep some creatine at your workplace. Those same co-workers are themselves out-of-shape fatty slobs. Hell you can't take Vitamin-C without it being steroids in their mind /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif
And even in the GYM ITSELF you'll find resistance to your ideas. You'll see people staring at you doing squats, deadlifts or other compound exercises. I know I can't "read" their thoughts, but I sure can guess what they're thinking.
Maybe this is a geographical problem. I'm in Iceland and it seem the only sport that receives any "respect" is fitness, those thin a slim types with nice cut and tan, doing 100 pull-ups, push-ups and stuff like that.
Everyone want to lose weight and be slim like that, that's why people would never want to ADD to their weight like we bodybuilders do.
There is also one thing I heard, that they don't do drug tests here in Iceland for these competitions, so a lot of people who compete at these sports are on some drugs.
Oh well, I'm off to the gym now to show those people exactly how much I care /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif