Bodybuilding Ruined Everything, pt I
Moshe and his IDF Death Kitten are not impressed by bodybuilding
Yeah, I said it.
Look deep within your heart Luke, you know it to be true.
Men have been interested in health and strength for a LONG time. Josephus talks about Judeans going out and lifting stones for their daily exercise. Charlemagne went for a daily swim. According to Sir Francis Bacon, archery is great for increasing lung capacity.
There were three great concerns for men and fitness. The first was health, the second was aesthetic, mostly not being a fat guy (by the standards of the time), and the third was strength. The last one is broader than the way we conceived it, it meant the ability to do specific things, run fast, wrestle well, ride well, and, yes, lift heavy stuff.
“Bodybuilding” changed everything. Aesthetics became king.
If you’ve been interested in fitness for a while, you can predict what I could say next. I could talk about “Being as strong as you look” and all sorts of fun stuff about how the old days were better, but I won’t. I don’t really have an issue with pursuing the aesthetics either, as long as you don’t go Greg Valentino crazy.
The biggest change is less about what the strength game became and more about the fact that everything about health and fitness for the non athlete (and in some cases for the athlete) was being viewed through the lenses bodybuilding provided.
Serious bodybuilding, like any serious sport, requires a high level of time, energy, and most importantly interest. Every human being has an interest in being healthy and strong, at least healthier and stronger, but not every human being has an interest in being a competitive bodybuilder, or even just a dedicated enthusiast. It is a specific sport, it’s not the be all and end all.
So the result is that 50 year old executives and soccer moms are being given health and nutrition plans that are great if you’re a sport bodybuilder, but not so great for their needs and desires.
It’s a pretty recognizable rule that you start small and build to greater things. The same way you can’t bench five hundred right out of the gate (unless you’re an orangutan, and if you are WHOA A LITERATE ORANGUTAN!), the same way you can’t expect someone who’s sedentary and overweight to have the heart of a champion right away. You can’t tell them “Go heavy or go home!” and expect it to have a lot of impact. You shouldn’t tell them to dig deep when all they’re going to do is hurt themselves because they haven’t built up the work capacity (ask those Crossfitters who got rhabdo from their overly intense trainer).
That’s why I love calisthenics and I love low carb. If you start at the bottom rung of Convict Conditioning, you’re doing simple exercises that do work, and you’re getting into the habit of working out. Low carb doesn’t ask you to give up everything right away, but allows you to continue a lot of what you’re doing, while making better decisions; it’s an easier pill to swallow. And guess what? All of these things mean greater health, better aesthetics, and better strength for something you might be called on or want to do in your daily life.
The pursuit of aesthetics is what drives a lot of us. And that’s great, who wants to be fat? But programs for people who want to look good professionally are not necessarily what’s needed or desired by most people. So its back to basics time, healthier, stronger, and better lookin’ using strategies that you will actually do.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Solter. John Solter said: Bodybuilding insidiously crept into all types of diet and exercise. http://www.eatsteakloseweight.com/bodybuilding-ruined-everything-pt-i/ [...]
I think this is one area that interest is getting confused with action. Reading about optimum health and fitness and quoting it around the office does not make you healthy and fit!
Your post brings to mind the annual grunt-fest that is The World’s Strongest Man Competition; I imagine you’ll have seen it. I remember seeing it for the first time and being convinced the contest was going to end in at least one heart attack. But of course, I was confusing strength with the popular conception of what fit people looked like. These guys had huge guts and multiple chins; but the most amazing strength and stamina.
With regards to the aesthetics point of view; whose aesthetic ideals are body-builders working towards anyway? I only know of one female friend who salivated over Arnie wannabes; a fetish that came to an end after she landed herself one and found that kissing him after his nightly tunafish-milkshake was a bit of a passion killer.