Chris_A wrote:Nice rant KPJ, and I’d like to add that I get sick to death of people constantly thinking that only compound PL exercises are going to lead to perfect symmetry in muscle development. It’s impossible. Not only will a larger muscle in a compound exercise receive the brunt of the work, but genetics also come to play. I get so sick of people just saying “Do this and you’ll grow plenty”. Huh? Grow where?
Um...grow everywhere. I agree with you to an extent, I'm not against 'isolation', and definitely not against bodybuilding, but I think a lot of people are too quick to recommend typical pre contest work out routines. The people most likely to ask how to get bigger are the people most likely to need the basics more than anything else. Mostly compound exercises will bring out a lot of muscles, there's always going to be some lagging muscles, and those would need more direct work, but you need to stick to the basics FIRST.
That was sort of the point to my whole rant, there's not THAT much of a difference between 'weight lifters', especially at the beginning stages. in my post i used an example of a competing bodybuilder telling me at least 2 years ago I had too many isolation exercises, too much pressing, needed to dead lift etc. I now take his advice despite my goal being PL. However, i'm sure if I spoke to him with several years training under my belt and a lot of over all mass built from that, he would of said "yeah. you need to bring out this more, and that more, and more direct work here etc etc".
Basically, I don't think training experience is considered enough before advice is given. 140lb beginners need dead lifts, squats, lot's and lot's of rows and pressing before they think about bringing out their upper chest or lateral delts or whatever.
Chris_A wrote:
Of course, there are plenty of people that say “I don’t care what I look like, I want to lift heavy”. Fine. Then why bother brushing your hair, or your teeth, or wearing clean clothes? Why bother with a diet. Just eat all you want; getting fat won’t stop you from lifting heavy. Yeah......total hypocrisy.
Don't really understand where this came from. For starters, you need a good diet to support a good performance, not necessarily anything to do with aesthetics. You can still CARE about aesthetics without training like a body builder or making aesthetics a goal in your training at all. Lift heavy stuff and eat a clean diet that supports performance, and you'll have a good physique. A world apart from the non lifter, but you won't win any BB comps.
And believe it or not, some PL, OL, or other athletes, actually couldn't care less about how their body looks, but as has already been pointed out, this is much different from hygiene. I don't get why it's so difficult to understand that outside of bodybuilding, you have lifters who don't care about symmetry, proportion between delt heads, arm size, how their tan is coming along or whether the leopard skinned posing pouch should be worn, or just stick to star spangled banner ones
OK the last ones were just cheeky, but, as I said, i'm not against bodybuilding, and I have a lot of respect for bodybuilders. The point to my whole rant is that we're all, regardless of goals, a lot more similar than people think.
KPj
