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Other/Mixed Alan Thrall: Why I Started Bodybuilding

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
silveraw said:
the number of people that want to lift consistently for years, get strong, and look like they haven’t lifted anything heavier than a soup can in their life has to be much closer to zero than the mean. I’d put it in the technically false, practically true category.
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Would have to agree. I have yet to hear someone say I want the physique of a computer geek.
 
a few of the posts in this thread make it seem like you can only be buff or ‘soup can skinny’. what about being lean and strong? i’d say that’s a different asthetic to being buff or untrained.

i agree that most people probably want to increase muscle mass, but, as a counter example, i don’t - at least not in a bodybuilding fashion.

for 3 reasons…

1) body weight to strength ratio is important the sports i enjoy - climbing and skateboarding. increasing mass without the strength can be detrimental, especially in climbing (although this isn’t an either / or… you def can increase mass and strength at same time!).

2) i just personally like being lighter and leaner - i guess that’s just the way i’ve always been so it feels like ‘me’.

3) and i also have a history of gut issues that make eating a lot for a bodybuilding approach difficult.

again, i agree most people probably hit the gym wanting to increase muscle mass, but its not that or ‘soup can skinny’.

i guess everyone’s ideas of health, fitness and well being look different, which is perfectly fine - we’ve all got to find what works for us.

and it’s being ‘lentil can lean’ for me :D
 
silveraw said:
the number of people that want to lift consistently for years, get strong, and look like they haven’t lifted anything heavier than a soup can in their life has to be much closer to zero than the mean
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However, how many people could lift consistently, get strong, but still look like they don't lift at all in the first place?
 
onlyisometrics said:
a few of the posts in this thread make it seem like you can only be buff or ‘soup can skinny’. what about being lean and strong? i’d say that’s a different asthetic to being buff or untrained.

for 3 reasons…

1) body weight to strength ratio is important the sports i enjoy - climbing and skateboarding. increasing mass without the strength can be detrimental, especially in climbing (although this isn’t an either / or… you def can increase mass and strength at same time!).

2) i just personally like being lighter and leaner - i guess that’s just the way i’ve always been so it feels like ‘me’.

3) and i also have a history of gut issues that make eating a lot for a bodybuilding approach difficult.
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This is kind of what I was saying with the "false dichotomy" statement. There are continuums here among huge and skinny, and strong and weak. Jyes, generally getting bigger = getting stronger, and losing weight = getting weaker, and yes, generally if your goals are relative strength related then being lighter is better, and yes, generally speaking, lighter is probably healthier for your joints and CV system, BUT NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE IRON CLAD RULES.

I could go into a lot of detail about specific situations, but for me two things come to mind quickly:
1) my parents are getting up there and they are losing weight and muscle. exercise is part of it, but not all of it - they are active. The issue (as I see it) is that they DON'T eat or drink enough. And not eating or drinking enough (and then doing less and less) is a particularly vicious cycle, especially if you're old.

2) the relative strength thing - leads a lot of (younger and even older) athletes into, here it is again, eating insufficiently/disorders. Way more common than you think to see kids swimming 5-10 miles a day, who eat not nearly enough and are afraid of gaining weight and muscle because they think it will make them slower. You look at guys like Caleb Dressel or Nathan Adrian and think "Well, these dudes aren't sveldt!", but yeah. My point with this is, even in sports where relative strength is key, a lot of athletes could probably add muscle and improve performance and health (and probably gut health as well). Not saying this is you or anyone else in the thread necessarily, but it is something I think people should consider when they go whole hog into the "MOAR MASS!" or "WIRY STRENGTH!" camps.
 
I think what @Steve Freides is saying is that bigger pumped up muscles are not his main priority....he'd rather be strong and fit. I do agree with him. If there is some muscle gain with this then ok but pumping muscles for show isn't my thing. Maybe in my 20s it was.

I defer to the "Enter the Kettlebell" wherein a guy named Pavel said if you complete the Rite of Passage goals, you'll be muscled "in the right places" or wordsvto that effect.

I think when Dan John mentions hypertrophy he's not meaning the bodybuilding type muscular gain, but rather maintaining/gaining musculature that we lose as we age.
 
Anders said:
I think it does something with my psychology every time I say to myself: I will perform this exercise only to get bigger muscles. I simply just feel more vain and vulnerable in a bad way. Maybe it is a bit like: We all want to be as handsome and beautiful as we could be, but plastic surgery would feel wrong for many of us (to phrase it in an extreme way).
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I wouldn’t be so quick to equate hypertrophy training with vanity, or that it’s training “only for show.” Sure lots of people do it for that reason, but it’s not like it has zero benefits or usefulness. Plenty of people see strength and function improvements from doing isolation exercises for hypertrophy. A bigger muscle, (as others have said), is, generally speaking, also a stronger muscle. You may already know this, but it’s worth mentioning that it’s not like doing hypertrophy training is going to turn you into a bodybuilder. I think a lot of people underestimate how hard you have to work for that. I’ve met plenty of people that basically train like a bodybuilder (isolation sets, doing 3x10s, etc) who just want to be fit, and it works well for them. There’s even a case to be made that training with machines and weights/dumbbells at moderate weight has a lower risk of injury, so it’s accessible for more people. In regards to aging, machines are a good entry point (or even main method of training) for older folks looking to get more fit. Statistically speaking I’m fairly certain bodybuilding has a quite low injury rate, outside of pros hitting crazy volumes and getting overuse injuries.

Steve Freides said:
In my opinion, to age healthily means to have a good amount of muscle mass through adulthood, and then train so as not to lose that muscle mass as one ages. Bodybuilding does not need to enter the picture at any age, except in so far as bodybuilding training strategies may be more applicable to older trainings.
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I agree. I think some folks (not pointing at anyone in the thread) equate “muscle mass” with “huge muscles.” Based on the pic you shared, if I saw you walking around the poolside or whatever I would think “he looks pretty fit!” I might not immediately guess you practiced powerlifting, but I could for sure tell you trained or were pretty physically active.
 
bluejeff said:
I wouldn’t be so quick to equate hypertrophy training with vanity, or that it’s training “only for show.” Sure lots of people do it for that reason, but it’s not like it has zero benefits or usefulness. Plenty of people see strength and function improvements from doing isolation exercises for hypertrophy. A bigger muscle, (as others have said), is, generally speaking, also a stronger muscle. You may already know this, but it’s worth mentioning that it’s not like doing hypertrophy training is going to turn you into a bodybuilder.
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Yeah, there's that story that's now so well known it's almost cliche of the pencil stick saying to a Mr. O "I would never want to look like you" to which Mr. O replies "Don't worry - you never will."
 
Boris Bachmann said:
Yeah, there's that story that's now so well known it's almost cliche of the pencil stick saying to a Mr. O "I would never want to look like you" to which Mr. O replies "Don't worry - you never will."
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I can’t even get my arms to 19” after years and those aren’t even big muscles
 
John Grahill said:
think what @Steve Freides is saying is that bigger pumped up muscles are not his main priority....he'd rather be strong and fit. I do agree with him. If there is some muscle gain with this then ok but pumping muscles for show isn't my thing.
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Yeah, but he took the first half of what Thrall said (paraphrasing) "I think everyone who trains wants to grow muscle or at least look like they lift." and cut off the qualifying statement to turn it into a binary "Mr Olympia body or nothing" type thing.

Not sure if it was intentional or not. Maybe he did stop the video half way through the sentence.
 
BJJ Shawn said:
If you are after ONLY strength, then he says singles are best but because there’s no hypertrophy element you will max out rather quickly.
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This makes me think about something. If, for example, you have some available muscle mass, but have been training haphazardly and without strict strength programs. And you're not very strong. However, this available muscle mass should help you not hit the wall as quickly. And don't need to put on more muscle, considering the fact that someone with muscles at your level is lifting much more than you.
I hope I explained it correctly :)
 
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