It's exhilarating. That's why I do it. I posted something to instagram [video] because I had a yoga instructor on my feed that inspired me (if this guy posts his stuff for thousands of likes, why can't I?) and have occasionally shown things off since. But I much prefer to have a broad chest and to bust out handstand push-ups in person than posting to social media. I only post a physical show-off once every six months or so. But that's because I have an aversion to preening and humble bragging--or just regular bragging--on social media that a lot of my peers obviously do not.
But klein is on the money. I'm broke, I was athletically inclined growing up, so working out is a hobby that comes easy to me. It also comes with hard-to-fake results which signal to those around me that I have self-discipline and physical health. It's a much better hobby than video games (no offense meant). And the "side-benefit" is a healthier, leaner, more robustly immuned body that will stick around for my kids' kids. But I can't help but feel that the main purpose fulfilled by my behavior is enhancing the presentation of this body we call Max.
Although, it's also really fun. It took me six weeks of practicing every day to be able to do a handstand push-up. And now busting one out is a joy.
I got you.
So you've got these kids and they don't make nearly what their parents made when they were kids. They've got roommates, or they live at home, and they don't drive because they can Uber everywhere and their music is on Spotify on their phone and really - they don't have much in the way of possessions and their job is shit and unfulfilling and has no security and you know what? A lot of the time they're bored. They're bored, they're insecure and they aren't getting what they were promised... just like every generation of young adult males before them.
But they've got Facebook, they've got Instagram, they've got Tinder, they've got Vine, they've got Youtube. They've got a million opportunities to tell them that there is no self without self-promotion. And the people they see are not shaped like their parents, the people they see are shaped like triathletes.
But only shaped. They never compete. They never play sports. They never get together and do any of the competitive stuff that you can actually be judged on. That requires training, which requires coaching, which requires a time commitment, whereas once you've got a gym membership they charge you the same no matter when and how often you're there. Frankly, their shower is nicer than the one at home anyway and probably there's a hot tub. And chicks in yoga pants.
And you can't really afford to eat anyway and for fuck's sake you aren't going to eat like your parents because my god who can handle the carbs? Especially when a fuckin' gin and tonic is 400 calories. So what do you do?
You lift.
You train.
You work out. You certainly don't "pump iron" - only cro magnons do that shit, guys whose tendons are so shortened they can't wipe their own asses. Not you. You're just here to "stay in shape" like every other dude in your Facebook feed. Besides, you've got that Tough Mudder coming up in a month and a half and there's nothing quite so Instagramariffic as abs covered in strategically-wiped mud. Maybe Bethany will even comment on the photo.
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Really, it's harmless. Probably great, actually. Kids with no money are turning inward, same as convicts do in prison. Take away their disposable income, their status signals and their materialistic possessions and all they got is them so that's what they're buffing and polishing and detailing and cruising up and down the boulevard in. When you've got the time, lookin' ripped simply demonstrates that you have the discipline.
Good on 'em. Me? I like bread and cheese too much but fuck you I'm still runnin' 9 minute miles.
That was a fun read. But no post-millennial's are named Bethany. -just saying. Maybe Charlotte or some other character from Sex and the City that their mom liked. But not Bethany.
My little cousin dated a Bethany. Chick thought she was a Disney princess. We all knew it was doomed, but you have to let young love play out.
Pretty good article, but it left me disappointed. It didn't even attempt to answer the first question it posed; "Max Olesker spent three months in the gym to find out what ripped-to-shit feels like."
So what does it feel like? What did he experience once he reached his goal? That's what I was reading this for.
At least it was well written.
I was following pretty well through the article until it brought up Sadik, Cory, and Marc. Are people who compete professionally in bodybuilding and the like really spornosexual? (God I hate that word) These aren't some people who are getting "cut for summer" or something equally as ridiculous. They train daily, take plenty of chemicals, and eat less than satisfying meals because they enjoy the sport, is that now reason enough to be some sort of advanced form of metrosexual?
I like what kleinbl00 said
- You lift.
You train.
You work out. You certainly don't "pump iron"
It just feels wrong grouping athletes in with people who do it just for vanity sake.
I laugh though, still no mention of powerlifters anywhere. Apparently our cut up shins, fat bodies, calloused hands, and bad eating habits aren't attractive. Fine, we'll just stay in our part of the gym then.
Well, as we all know, dehydration (as OftenBen mentioned) is great for strength.
Debate "functional" all you want; whoever that guy is, he can jerk a knot in Hugh Jackman and everybody (including Hugh) knows it. I've worked with plenty of super-ripped guys; they'll freely admit they're much weaker than if they actually had any glycogen reserves to speak of. Meanwhile I had a lifter buddy of mine help me move a few years back; despite regional competitions, nine hours a week in the gym and six inches and 30 lbs on me, dude had a hard time helping me move my couch.
I would say that "functional training" sounds nice but is really about frantic activity that gets you sweating.
Mark Rippetoe, author of the seminal strength training book Starting Strength, wrote in an article "CrossFit and Functional Training":
- Strength, as you already know, is the ability to exert force on physical objects. Skill is the learned ability to carry out a task within a definable framework of time and energy.
Neither of these physical characteristics can be developed through methods that employ the constant variation of stress stimuli, because neither strength nor skill can develop under infrequent exposure to the stresses that cause the adaptation.
Like learning to play the piano, their acquisition must be accumulated in a logical, methodical manner. Not all exercise systems are equally proficient at developing strength and skill. As it turns out, strength training with barbells combined with practice of the sports skill is the best way to develop both.
Now that seems reasonable enough, right? You get both stronger and better at your sport over time, by training for strength and practicing your skills. So why are the two biggest players in the fitness industry telling you otherwise? [CrossFit and "functional training"]
and goes on to say
- A tennis swing does not apply to baseball, or even to racquetball. A softball pitch does not prepare you for a baseball pitch. These things are obvious to anyone who has played them.
For the same reasons, a skilled wobble board squat with a light barbell may look impressive on the internet, but it cannot translate to a skilled field performance in an actual sport, unless the sport is wobble-board squatting with light weights.
You mean dehydration is good for looking strong/ripped? Having to do a water cut with 2 hour weigh-ins is the bane of my powerlifting existence. It's hard to rehydrate enough before squats start and not be bloated. But that said trying to walk around always looking your best is going to be fucking tough. Not having glycogen to run off of like you said is going to hinder any sort of strength you have but damn you'll probably look good doing it. I think this is where a pretty good distinction between instagrammer and athlete can come in. Look at Sadik right now. He's big, puffy, definitely not looking his best but he's showing there is a process to get to where he is going. (The new classic physique division) Now the guy in the article if he wants to get stronger and keep the same body composition its going to take a long time. Not having a calorie surplus makes it near impossible. And if you want them to help move a couch they'll be so drained they won't be any better help than a normal person.
Hopefully my point came across there between the vanity instagrammers and athletes who can seem similar.
But that is Zydrunas Savickas one of the better strongmen around right now next to Brian Shaw and Hafthor Bjornsson (The Mountain in GoT). I lift with a strongman at my gym and it is so much fun when I do some of their workouts. If you need someone to help you move they're the ones, if they can lift a few hundred pound atlas stone, they can lift an armchair for you!
Girlfriend's sister decided she was going to the gym to get strong. She did; chick could do more pull-ups than her dad and could squat like a Marine. But she also got heavy because she needed the reserves to actually move the metal. She spent probably 2 years like that and gained maybe 4 dress sizes. Then she decided that she'd wandered a bit outside the normal dating parameters of young adult females and started focusing on being trim. Six months later she was a lithe little thing and got a lot more dates... but she couldn't lift a fraction of what she'd been training at.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish my tamale.
Not to get too far off topic but it is a bit of a shame that was the case with your girlfriend's sister. If she wanted to be big and strong, fuck it. Who is anyone to judge. It's been awesome to see powerlifting getting more popular with women and having more women compete!
But I digress, tamales sound great for lunch today.
Not off topic at all. The whole discussion is about shifting norms and ideals for socialization. She was uncomfortable deviating from the recognized social norm for young women, but not until she'd experienced life beyond the curve. Should those social norms begin favoring female strength, more young women will walk her path.
- In 2014, Simpson pronounced the metrosexual finally dead — superseded by the spornosexual.
Perhaps I'm biased as a student at a large university, but I have to disagree. I have never seen so many well-dressed and fashion forward men in my life. I wonder if the "spornosexual" would be more common in hotter climates (i.e. where men can take their shirt off for more then 3 months out of the year). Physique is one of the few areas men are "allowed" to be vain.
Actually, I found this comment (with 42 likes) to be really interesting:
- Was your girlfriend a fan of your transformation? Or did she feel threaten when you became sporno? Interesting read, would be cool to hear about what people close to you thought about the extreme change in your body type!
Not sure why, but it doesn't quite sit well with me. Perhaps it's the reminder that other people will have their judgement about what he does with his body, and I can't help but relate that to my own experiences. People focus on the outcome, but not what it took to get there.
It's right there in the closing statement.
- “People love it. There’s no top or pair of shoes you could wear that gets as much reaction as a six pack.”
Who reacts most strongly, most positively to defined abdominal muscles? Women. Getting the muscle, and most importantly the low body fat (and dehydration) is the way to make a high percentage of heterosexual women be physically attracted to you. Not saying its easy, but its not complicated by any means. All the other stuff like crossfit, "functional strength" etc is just the flavor really, along with an allegiance to proclaim and feel good about.
We can discuss this in different ways, from a public health perspective (Maybe all the anti-obesity propaganda is starting to work and 'spornosexual' is just a word to describe a type of guy who goes to the gym regularly) or some other.
But unless you're a coach, trainer or competitive athlete, youre taking an ab selfie with the intent of attracting female attention.
Dude. Brah. This statement is almost as cringe-worthy as the one you deleted. Let's take your statements:
- There's a reason why the 'dad-bod' thing died so quickly.
There's a reason why dudes are getting in shape in greater numbers than in the past few decades.
These align with the observation made by the article: That men are spending more and more time preening in the gym, and that this is a new thing. But then you go with this howler:
- Who reacts most strongly, most positively to defined abdominal muscles? Women.
Assume that were true, which is hilarious, but assume it were, and it doesn't the answer the argument: why do women "react most strongly" to 8-pack abs NOW? Why are the men of today suddenly the first and only enlightened generation in the history of mankind, which up until now has subjected the fair sex to flab purely out of ignorance and sloth?
When you attempt to answer the question, you throw a wobble ("Maybe all the anti-obesity propaganda is starting to work") and then head back to the tried'n'true Brosif parable: "I'm in it for the chicks." Right. All these dudes getting ripped for movies, which are attended 70% by 18-yo males, are doing it to impress the female audience. But leave that aside for a minute and try again:
Why NOW?
The deleted one was a double-post of the one you replied to.
Why NOW?
Because of Tinder and things like it. A small subset of heterosexual dudes is having a really good and easy time in the casual sex department. The biggest thing that subset has in common is a low body fat percentage. You want to join that club, get shredded. In fact, with how fat 'average' is these days, just don't be fat and you're already above average.
People work out for all sorts of reasons. Some people want to be big venous powerlifters, some want to win the crossfit olympics. Some may be genuinely into fitness as a hobby and want to share their progress and techniques with the world (Or social media, amounts to the same) Others enjoy the process, the endorphins that much, and others are just in it for girls. With the examples described in the article, specifically abdominal definition and social media presence used to advertise such, and no indication that your average 'spornosexual' is a fitness coach, professional athlete, etc, I don't see a reasonable conclusion outside of the Brosif parable. * Or the 'Lots of dudes are broke and polishing up the 'ol meatwagon can be fun and rewarding' bit that you mentioned. But my money is more on the former than latter.
- There's a reason why the 'dad-bod' thing died so quickly