You can tell a lot about a man
by how he reacts to muscle. At least I can tell whether I want to spend any time with them.
Guys, what’s your gut reaction when you see a jacked movie star or fitness model?
Does you think it’s cool? Inspiring? Even feel a little envious, in a “shit that dude looks great” mutual admiration sort of way?
Or do you cry foul, and piss and moan online about all the advantages he has that you don’t?
I’m done with guys dumping on the accomplishments of others simply because they have inferior resources.
Yes, movie stars are rich. Most have a team of trainers and coaches and therapists, and usually an “open minded” doctor that helps make the process much easier.
They also have more time set aside to train than you, though not as much as you believe — famous people still have a job to go to. And frankly, you probably aren’t as busy as you want to believe either, Captain Five Facebook Status Updates a Day.
But here’s the crux of the issue — all these advantages rich folks have notwithstanding, they’re still doing the goddamn work.
So say what you want about Hugh Jackman’s deadlift form, but he’s 40-some years old and pulling 500+ pounds — at 5:30 am.
His personal chef and dietitian and pharmacist aren’t under the bar at that ungodly hour – he is.
Ditto The Rock: he may be gifted as hell but he still rolls his 42 year-old carcass out of bed at 4 am to bang out two workouts before arriving on set at 9.
Trust me, there are some powerful PED’s that do pretty amazing things, but I’ve yet to hear of any steroid or peptide that puts a boot in your ass while the rest of the sane world is still in bed.
Yet none of these dorks posting disparaging comments online ever acknowledge this.
At best they’ll say, “Well if I was making 20 million dollars per movie I’d be that motivated to train too.”
Really? So that’s it? Your reasoning for staying fat and sloppy is because there’s not enough fucking money in it for you to do the basic work?
Being healthy and fit, to be able to take your shirt off and feel good about yourself, to maybe even have a female or two pay you a compliment — that’s not enough motivation?
No, you need a financial incentive as well before you start trying to improve?
The Limp Dick Brigade is taking it a step further.
There are articles from armchair psychologists whining that hyper-masculine images of jacked-up men are “bad” because they make “normal” men feel insecure and create body dysmorphia.
They even go so far as to equate it to the distorted beauty standards the billion-dollar fashion and beauty industries shamelessly force upon women of all ages.
I don’t disagree that there aren’t similarities – women grow up with unrealistic beauty standards like the hourglass Barbie; guys go grow up with every comic book superhero looking like Ronnie Coleman in red tights and a cape.
Can this lead to young guys feeling insecure about their bodies? Sure. Maybe even turn to over exercising or “bigorexia” or dumb-ass eating? Absolutely.
But let’s get real: the two issues aren’t even in the same ballpark.
An insecure teenage male who sees Predator and the infamous handshake for the first time and gets inspired to train with weights does not face the same mine-field as a girl barely out of elementary school being pressured from all angles to lose weight, act sexy, and “get a booty.”
Here’s another thing: Guys, we’re men.
While I’m no expert on manhood, I do think part of it is either accepting what we’re unable (or unwilling or incapable) of changing, or busting ass and trying to make things better.
In other words, at some point an adult male has to grow the fuck up. Which means not crying foul or blaming the media or searching for a psychological boogeyman when another man with more resources is able to achieve more.
A final observation, from 20-plus years of doing this:
Ever notice that when a ripped-to-shreds middle-aged man takes his shirt off on screen, the most negative comments are always from other adult males, specifically the “I tried working out for 3 weeks, it didn’t work and I was too busy” crowd?
Whereas the committed lifters, natural or otherwise, tend to be overwhelmingly positive, usually giving credit for their obvious hard work and dedication to training, nutrition (and yes, chemistry). Just something to consider.
So we need a new rule:
When a jacked guy pops up on screen, you’re hereby forbidden from making dickheaded comments about what it took to get there. Not until you clock at least 5 years of consistent training yourself.
At that point you have free reign to log in make and any comment you want. But I guarantee that 99% of the comments will be “I’m not sure exactly what that son of a bitch did, but I do know he busted his ass and did his homework.”
Not as jacked as Arnold in Predator though. But still pretty cool.
