Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Big women

I hate to say this, but "only in America"... Americans do the same things the rest of the world is doing, but they tend to take it to extremes, don't they. This goes for all the good things too, of course.

I'm sure our resident doctor will give us a paragraph about just how unhealthy this kind of super-over-trained body is. I'll just say, even with men I'm amazed they think it looks good, but with women it's mind-boggling. Do they have mirrors? Do they live in a total fantasy world?







This one I like:
http://tr.im/hAg2

40 comments:

Monsieur Beep! said...

Eolake, I think these Ladies just can't help it. It's their type of body, it's in their genes, it's called athletic body shape.
There are also the scarecrows, and the fatter types. "Why don't ya eat more v you eat too much". Blah blah.

A "standard" woman could never build such a mass of muscles, may she be training day'n'night.

I think these Ladies are only trying to make the most of their "fate".

I'm also curious to see here a more expert comment from our doctor.

Anonymous said...

Shit, Monsieur, you can't be serious. Their body type? In their genes?! Ay caramba! As Eolake would say, "What a load!"

Without drugs even men can't get this big!

This is really gross.

I agree with Big E, though, only in America. ...Although, there are bodybuilders in other countries, certainly. I mean Dorian Yates, an Englishman, was a seven time Mr. Olympia winner. He's from Birmingham. Still runs a gym there. That said, this "sport" was I think born in the U.S.

Bronislaus Janulis / Framewright said...

Ummm, can you say Photoshop?

Eolake, the worlds most famous body builder is Austrian.

Bron

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I was going to say as well, I think that this is probably partly mental illness, the opposite of anorexia.

Alex said...

Charles Atlas is Austrian?

Even our governor was a body builder. He too is Austrian, and after appearing in some movies he and his wife went into politics. I don't think he'd famous outside California.

Bronislaus Janulis / Framewright said...

Arnold, due to his fame, led to the boom in body building. He wanted more, though.

Bron

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Indeed, no woman looks even 1/5th this muscular without drugs and hours of training every day.

It briefly did occur to me if the pics are fake, but I don't think they are. Their look and feel is real, even if the "women" seem unreal.

I hope I am not being unfair to America, but it just seems to me they always take it a step further.

Alex said...

I hope I am being unfair to America, but it just seems to me they always take it a step further.

Okay, now you have to point out a flaw in the English, French, Swahilis and Danish just to be fair.

Americas are not the only ones to take things to extreme. Get thee hence to the Black Country, there's a pub called "Mad O'Rourkes" and they sell this behemoth of pie. This delicious comestible is of the gargantuan proportions of a juggernaut, a regular pantechnicon replete with probably 1/2lb of beef, then veggies and potatoes. This pie is called a "Desparate Dan's Cow Pie" after the ones in "The Dandy". They are not as big as the cowboy eats in the comic, but as nigh as butter is to bread.

Looking at the Black Country link I see that Black Country folk and Brummies are none to polite towards each other. Another case of a British antagonism between two halves of the same county. Makes your anti-American comments seem trivial.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

The English can't make a good sandwich, the French smell of garlic, the Swahilis are too tall, and the Danes are too smug.

Alex said...

There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do.

Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for all the fish.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

As usual, Douglas said it well.

Last sandwich I bought in a cafe had discount-quality white sliced toast bread, untoasted, and tuna. That was it. No mayo, tomato, lettuce, or anything.

Oddly, the best sandwiches I can get is a brand they carry in the fridge in Texaco!

Alex said...

For those outside the UK, Texaco is a gas station, they have the typical foods.

There was a sandwich shop on Stanley Street in Bootle (Merseyside) between Marsh Lane and Merton Rd, that did a very good "coronation chicken" sandwich.

American sandwiches are a little over done, a turkey sandwich will have 6-8 layers of sliced turkey alone, and then heaps of salad and a 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce/jelly. When a sandwich is too thick to fit in your mouth, then it is too big!

Anonymous said...

How did this turn into a sandwich discus...but as it has.....WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT to find a sandwich anywhere WITHOUT mayo or DRESSING....some of us like a sandwich WITHOUT.....grrrrrrrr

Unknown said...

Ah, the sandwiches I had in England... toast bread completely soaked in some kind of awful white sauce. Ew. Long Live Döners and Kebabs and Falafels.

I don't smell of Garlic though ;)

Anonymous said...

It's that whole "pursuit of happiness" thing. Americans do what pleases themselves, even if you don't approve.

Worse than that, even if I don't approve.

If nothing else, we get a lot of variety.

Anonymous said...

And then there are the beautiful body-builders, such as Corey Everson who have been much more sensible about it...many years after going for a goal...

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

How unhealthy this kind of super-over-trained body is! There, I've said it. ;-)

I'll remind you I'm not a resident any more, I'm officially graduated.

Are you at least sure these photos are real? Even to me, and I've seen quite a few, they seem a bit TOO extreme.

Awright, I'll tell you a bit more about why/how, honestly, this is indeed unhealthy, but later. (Haven't I explained this before?) Right now, I have a few family matters to attend to. In the meantime, I suggest you browse Wikipedia to read about the strange death of perhaps the fittest person I've ever heard of, Bruce Lee.
Kinda makes you ponder.

These huge chests are VERY un-sexy. All pecs, no breasts. The kind of regimen followed for "body sculpture"(!) causes the labia and mons venus to shrivel (ugliest vulvas I've ever seen, including in senior citizens), and the breasts to melt.

The testes melt too. Big muscles, small weenie. Typical effect of the steroids, because let's be honest, only artificial substances can get you this "inflated".
Which in itself is enough to prove it's all very unhealthy. They're not prohibited because they help attain performances (except in sports, because that's cheating), but because they're DANGEROUS.
I have yet to meet a steroid user whom I've successfully convinced to stop. The fools don't listen. And the dead can't listen.
Not all pro athletes who die suddenly were doing "substances". But they sure help. If you can call that "help"!

Moderation in everything. Including in following this here advice. Of course. :-)

Later, semi-healthy sedentaries.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"Worse than that, even if I don't approve."

LOL.
It's a bitch, isn't it?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

We'll look forward to it. But don't do one of your 5000-word extravaganzas! :-)

I saw a TV show with a good looking 60-year-old woman talking to her doctor. He listed the downsides to some pills she were taking basically risks of all the illnesses you've heard about. And the upside? "They keep you looking younger".
She said: "why rock the boat? Can I have a prescription extension please?"

Anonymous said...

I would imagine this is drugs if not photoshop, but actually weight training can have a very good effect on the appearance of all bodies and especially woman, in my observation, and it is one of the best forms of exercise.

Anonymous said...

If nothing else these ladies show what a lot of hard work can do.As for the look that is up to the viewer you like it or you don't.It might be hard for some guys to deal with the idea of a woman who could pick them up and chuck them out the window with the same ease as taking out the garbage.For me I'll go with the big girls with some shape and firmness compared to some of the ladies I've seen that size who are just plain fat.I'm having flashbacks to my loving days with a certain gal called "Buffalo Sue". Big, shapely,and a double dose of yummy. cjg. of eroticalee

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Monsieur Beep,
Surely you don't imagine them monstrous muscular madam masses are merely the median mundane manifestation of a mighty missie morphology, mis-perceived by moronic macho meager males moping in a mean monday morning mood? Hmmm?
Sure, "big bones" play a part. Like the cornerstone plays a part in a skyscraper. Alone, it is nothing.

I honestly don't mind one bit a strong woman, be it in personality or body. I love a valkyrie as much as the next geek. But this... this is denial of all feminity. And muscle hyperinflation to freakish proportions is both unnatural and un-pretty.

Moderation in everything. It IS a positive thing to get toned up, to get off one's flabby butt and do some sport, even some healthy bodybuilding is absolutely fine. A sensible amount of physical activity, muscle tone and development is full of benefits.
And a woman with muscles can still be absolutely feminine, gracious and alluring. If it's reasonable.

It ceases being beneficial when you completely mess up your body's physiology, metabolism and hormonal balance, often with artifial substances or artificial overdosages of natural substances, to become this nonsensical invention which is "a human sculpture". It is ALL artificial. Ever seen the "World's Strongest Man" contest, on Discovery Channel I think? They're FAR stronger than bodybuilders, and have the added quality to be strong in a global manner, not just for one highly specific movement like olympic weightlifters. Yet both these categories have muscles that are markedly smaller than "bodybuilders". Why? Because, as I've said, that size itself is artificial, it's very different from strength, it's about quantity not quality. They do get stronger of course, but that's not the point at all. The point of what they do is to get the bulkiest possible muscles, with the most visible veins, meaning they also want to decrease body fat to the extreme. An extreme that includes the very normal subcutaneous fat layer which we all have, including (especially?) newborn babies.
In a nutshell, this means seeking a very unusual, and abnormal, status for the body. Obesity IS bad, but extremely low body fat proportions are too.

Especially considering that women have a higher body fat ratio, that brings an important contribution to these feminine curves we all love. And the lack of which makes toothpick fashion models so un-pretty!

Bearing in mind Eolake's extravaganzophobia, and my own lazy mood, I'll spare you the long and boring details of how exactly this is very bad and suffice with a brief overview :

- Fat is energy reserves. We all need to have some. Remember that Tom Hanks movie where he gets stranded on a desert island, and his obesity helps him survive starvation? He got forced into the "Atkins diet". It's an extreme example, naturally, having some back-up doesn't necessitate emulating Fat Albert.

- The body is a whole, a balance, a metabolic harmony. Us doctors know all the details. Here's just one: fat ratio plays a major role in the hormonal equilibrium. Too much AND too little are virtually states of sickness.

- Overtraining in pro athletes, as I've blogged it a good while ago, brings lots of dangers, including tendon and ligament ruptures or their ripping off their bone attachments, bone fractures, muscles genuinely snapping in two (are you wincing yet?), and the exhaustion of the body's biological and cellular potential fror repair and (re)growth. Pushing your muscles to increase in volume to the extreme of what they can reach is similarly dangerous, even if the risk rates are not the same. And again, remember that with the vast majority of proponents of this activity using "substances", one really wonders how come they act like health freaks when it comes to food. It's like worrying about the risks of cell phone waves when you live in Chernobyl.

Incidentally, it appears that Chernobyl is not as horrible a place as you might imagine. Yes it is radio-active. And yes, it does affect the plant and animal life in this region now abandoned by man. But interestingly, flora and fauna prosper there. In spite of the mutagenous radiations.
Proving that they're a lesser evil compared to the influence of humans, with their conquest and plundering and polluting of natural spaces.

To get back on topic, a Ukrainian legend claims that a hairy she-hulk sasquatch now roams the deserted regions of Chernobyl.
Naaah! I'm pulling your leg! But admit it, it was a good one and you almost bought it, didn't you? :-)

Eo was right on one thing: many nations have a dominant specific trait, the French are gallant, the Italians are show-off casanovas, the Lebanese are know-it-alls (not always self-proclaimed, too)... and the Americans love to do everything BIG.
Their last President now holds the historical record for most verbal AND political blunders in office in the shortest time.
But I think the record for the biggest political blunder is still proudly held by Lebanon. ;-)

"this is probably partly mental illness, the opposite of anorexia."
Every time you dedicate a lot of effort to modify your body beyond simple health sense, there's something wrong with your body image, and in your relationship with yourself. Especially when you ponder that so many body-builders aim to attain even more, always more... What about some mind-building and wisdom-building?
I've just heard of that great new experimental stuff, it's guaranteed to boost your wisdom in no time.
Sure, you're bound to encounter lots of jealous types claiming you're just becoming a brain-fried moron, but don't listen to them. What do they know, right?

"Okay, now you have to point out a flaw in the English, French, Swahilis and Danish just to be fair."
The Swahilis are lousy at tanning during summer vacation. The English drink tea, nuff said. The Danish think all pretty women should go naked, these pervs! As for the French, they love to gripe, I kid you not, complaining is their national passtime. But that garlic smell is phony. It's just the herbs from their much-aromatic cheeses, especially the ones that melt. (And in Corsica, they go boom.)

"Oddly, the best sandwiches I can get is a brand they carry in the fridge in Texaco!"
My brother lives in Houston. He can testify : the Americans always want more and bigger than the rest of the world, and nobody wants to top the rest of America more than the people of Texaco!

Alex minimised...
"For those outside the UK, Texaco is a gas station"

857,431 oil wells, and you call that "a gas station"?
Yeah, and I was born during that insignificant street brawl in Beirut, a few years before a slightly excited bearded guy told the Iranians they should pray more.
And the North Pole is missing a few ice cubes this year. Perhaps because of all the 4th of July fireworks displays in friendly scenic Baghdad.
8-)

"When a sandwich is too thick to fit in your mouth, then it is too big!"

Yeah, sure. Just admit you have small mouths!
Right, Scoob?

Speaking of sandwiches, lebanese bread is quite convenient. It's in the shape of round sheets, all you have to do is roll them with the contents neatly caught inside.

"weight training [...] is one of the best forms of exercise."
It all depends on how you do it, again moderation is essential.
Walking is also very good. And swimming, too.
It's interesting, how little exercise one truly needs to stay in decently healthy shape. The rest is all bonus, naturally.

My, I expected this post to be smaller, overall. Must be the MGF, I always overdo the doses.

CJG,
Got any pictures of "Buffalo Belle"? :-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

This one I like.

http://tr.im/hAfJ

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"size itself is artificial, it's very different from strength, it's about quantity not quality."

I've often thought that maybe the biggest "builders" aren't *that* strong. All that bulk gets in the way of itself.

Funny thing too, a chimpanzee at half the size of a man can be four times stronger.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"This one I like."
And rightfully you may. Precisely the kind of "women with reasonable muscles" I meant.
I wonder what site with much taste displays her. Hold on, I think there might be a tiny text somewhere in the picture...

"Note: Annalee did not get breast implants, she only got a baby, and is nursing."
Aah, motherhood : the best, all-natural way to increase breast size, and in part it's lasting.
It also pleasantly confirms what I said about feminity. :-)
Clearly, Annalee didn't overdo the physical training, which -I explained it in the past- causes a reversible sterility in women. The endorphins from intensive physical activity suppress the GnRH secretion in the hypothalamus, and the ovaries stop, along with the periods.

"All that bulk gets in the way of itself."
Yes, anatomically it might. But that's not the main reason. They literally are inflated muscles, from a biological point of view.
Much of the "toning" when one trains his muscles are precisely about improving the QUALITY of the muscles. Growth is relatively secondary, comes later, and is typically slow and moderate.
"Bodybuilding" is a very different enchillada.

"a chimpanzee at half the size of a man can be four times stronger."
That's because a chimp is an animal. We humans are too "civilized".
When an animal uses its strength, there's nothing held back. In the animal kingdom, either you choose a pacific attitude, or you fight for REAL. Male dueling at mating season excepted.
Remember that criterium for demonic possession: "great strength"? That's because we're so used to holding back, it becomes second nature. A nature that vanishes in a furious psychotic at the same time as the socially integrated personality.
Proportionately, a chimpanzee is probably no stronger that a healthily fed, well trained and properly "psyched-up" weightlifter. Remember also that bit about a boxer's fists being considered lethal weapons. The professional training lifts the deep-rooted social inhibitions on human physical strength, and when a pro boxer hits, he really hits.

In a way, Mike Tyson genuinely is an animal...
(But don't tell him I said so, I value my ears!)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I wonder if that explains it all, or if there is something structurally different about their muscles. I read of a female chimp who pulled over 400 kilos (in a measurement device) with one arm, in a relaxed, non-emotional moment.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

There might be something of that too.
A good scientist almost never claims that his explanation explains it all. Most of the time, there are unaccounted for elements that were simplified for the sake of clarity.
But I'm not too much of a chimp expert. Can't tell you whether it's facts, or emotionally exaggerated human awe.

"The Animal" Batista sure is an impressive heap of human muscle, though.
They claim that pro wrestling has become "clean" and doesn't use steroids any more. I'd love to believe that, but with THEIR huge muscles? Makes one doubt.

Then again, pro wrestlers are genuine stuntmen. Theirs is a training that aims for both muscle size and physical strength. Anything's possible...
The fights are simulated. But the live stunts they pull are genuine. To withstand a spinebuster without ending up like Batman, they've GOT to be good stuntmen, and darn well fit.

Straying off-topic, perhaps?
Not really sure.
After all, pro wrestling is an amazing example of fake meeting genuine. I love it both for the outrageous scenarios, the bad acting, and the genuine talent for NOT maiming each other at the first move.
And also, there have been some Steph McMahon nip slips. ;-)
One movie I found years ago is hilarious: she's about to be dreadfully "brutalized" by (Triple H?) slamming her in the ground, but she's hastily readjusting her top.

DeltaCubed said...

Enough of this chit-chat, let's talk about Michelle Obama's arms!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Funny: I don't mind S/M, but I can't watch pro wrestling, too violent.

Anonymous said...

DDD said...
"Enough of this chit-chat, let's talk about Michelle Obama's arms!"


Yes. That is nice to see. I like Audra McDonald's (of *Private Practice*) arms, too! :-)

Alex said...

Pascal,

I was putting it into context of grabbing a sarnie. Boots is a huge retail chain, but most people simply mean the chemists (pharmacy to our US listeners).

When you say Bass you normally mean a pint (20floz) of brown liquid, not the whole millions of gallons a day brewery and mass of tenanted pubs.

Alex

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

A "sarnie" is mancunian for sandwich.

"Mancunian" is mancunian for "of Manchester".
(I want to make a movie called The Mancunian Candidate.)

Anonymous said...

A movie about a guy getting drunk and brawling at football games isn't very interesting.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Hehe. Oh, I don't know, look at the success of Trainspotting.

Anyway, I was thinking more in the direction of The Bourne Identity meet Ideal.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Candidate to WHAT?
Uh... on second thought, maybe I don't want to know. Elections approaching in Lebanon, last thing we need is the Mancunians interfering with the can o' worms.
It's quite enough that the Americans, Europeans, Egyptians, Lybians, Iranians, Saudi, Emirati, Chinese, Russians... all muscle in regularly at the rambunctious ruckus of every raucous caucus.

"Michelle Obama's arms"... really! You Westerners...
Whether Hayfa Wehbe's butt has been lipo-sucked or just nipped/tucked, now THAT is a topic worthy of the whole world's fascinated concern!

" I can't watch pro wrestling, too violent."
You surprise me there, Captain Flint. More violent than some horror movies we recently talked about? Of than 300?
Female wrestling, maybe. And even then... All US pro wrestling is just too far-fetched to traumatize a vaguely balanced adult. As I said, the most violent GENUINE stuff going on there is essentially live action stunts.
Impressive, yes. "Virile" like the Superbowl final, sure. But genuinely violent?
You've read too much Batman, dude.

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of purchasing The Killing Joke. Looks like it's well worth the hefty price tag.

Last week, I found a 5-disc boxed set of Jackie Chan movies (all official, at Virgin's), for $19.90. And all old-time movies from when he focused more on classic kung-fu than on comedy.
I'm fond of quality kung-fu, like the stuff of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. You bear with the made-up violence of the bad guys "dying", and you're left with that description I once heard about the Shaolin monks: "the grace of a ballet dancer, the power of a sledgehammer". Hardly impressive muscle size, but when you know they genuinely are badass butt-kicking machines... Again, I mean the serious kung-fu talents, not the mainstream silly productions.
It always fascinates me how they can authentically move with such speed, such precision, AND such power. You know they hold their blows in the movies, but Master Lee truly was as fearsome as he appears on screen.
At 16, he got into trouble, mingled with street gangs, and engaged into a fight which he lost. He never lost another fight in his life.

Ah, but I'm digressing. My point is, he and Chan prove that it's not the size of the muscles, it's how you use them. They were both darn toned, but absolutely not bulky.
As I've mentioned, it's too bad that Lee's ascetic regimen made him even more sensitive to the freak medical phenomenon that took him.

Speaking of "violent" wrestling... few people are more muscular than Brock Lesnar (though a few are just as much). Well, I'll never forget that classic match against the Big Show, where he lifted him vertically from atop the third rope, and slammed him in the middle of the ring where they both fell. The ring collapsed under the sismic shock!
Sure, it was quite probably rigged and all, but man, that was wild.
And when you see Jeff Hardy doing a flip jump from the top of a 15-foot steel cage, no tricks, no net, you know it's been repeated many times with his "opponent", but by tarnation, if it isn't a bloody impressive display of talent and guts.
Uhm... I DON'T mean that you actually see his splashed guts. He pulled it off. (Phew!)

While I honestly have to ask whether bodybuilders are good for anything more than taking poses on a stage. In ridiculously tiny thongs.
These same thongs do reveal that they usually have a small "package", even when accounting for the relative size of the rest. The costumes also show that the women only wear a top because of social custom, since they don't have a thread of breasts left to cover.
A woman's chest that's all pecs? Excuse me if I don't find it sexy.
"I never sleep with a woman who's got smaller breasts than I do." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the barbarian, in Red Sonja.

Not to sound envious, but some of the men, too, become such a raw mass of flesh that they freak me out, and I can't imagine a level-minded woman being attracted by them.
As a proof of my un-jealousy, here's one man whose muscles were undeniably fantastic-looking: Johnny Weissmuller. The most famous Tarzan actor, and olympic swimming champion.
More than him in muscles, frankly, is pointless to seek.

"At age nine, Weissmuller contracted polio. At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming to help battle the disease."
And he became the world's fastest man in water. How come all the people I find genuinely worthy have something in their life to prove it beyond any doubt? :-)
Bruce Lee grew up from a hoodlum to a rolemodel for youth, and also recovered from a potentially crippling injury. As for Jackie Chan... I think he himself has lost count of all the fractures he got during his stunts. But he still goes on, for the love of his public. And always with a smile! He's truly as modest in real life as his on screen characters.

It's so nice to find impressive people who are well in their head.
I knew Brock Lesnar when he was the official "heel Monster" of the Federation, his kayfabe persona was absolutely loathsome. Yet, at that time, I saw a few seconds of an interview he gave when the Federation went to Iraq to perform for the Boys. I don't make mistakes about people's character when I'm this positive: his smile, there, was that of a very nice person.
Of course. To step in the ring with such a titan, who's to pretend he's fiercely massacring you, you really have to trust him as a stunt colleague, to know he WILL be careful not to truly hurt you. Wrestling accidents (the genuine ones) are often dramatic.

But I still feel those wrestlers are too "big". The things people will do for showbiz...

Anon appraised...
"A movie about a guy getting drunk and brawling at football games isn't very interesting."

I haven't seen Rourke's The Wrestler yet... :-)
Then again, as I said, in Lebanon we have elections!!! Same difference.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Correction: I've just found out that Jeff Hardy once did a live leap on Edge from a 20-foot ladder.
Completely nutty. But damn gutsy, by Anubis!
Americans who love this sort of entertainment are clearly decadent.
Ergo, so am I. :-D

Anonymous said...

Speaking of "violent" wrestling... few people are more muscular than Brock Lesnar (though a few are just as much). Well, I'll never forget that classic match against the Big Show, where he lifted him vertically from atop the third rope, and slammed him in the middle of the ring where they both fell. The ring collapsed under the sismic shock!

It's funny the kinds of people who are fans of this stuff. You think of the average pro wrestling fan as living in a trailer park. I was a fan of WWF (World Wrestling Federation, before it became WWE; although I'm also a fan of the World Wildlife Fund) in mid 1980s. The days of Hulkamania, Macho Man Randy Savage, King Kong Bundy, the peerless Andre the Giant (to whom Big Show and other "giants" are mere pretenders), Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, Rick Rude, Junkyard Dog, George The Animal Steele (who also played wrestler Tor Johnson in Tim Burton's Ed Wood). Those were the days! Today it's just talk, talk, talk...and then a little bit of action. I loved the recent movie The Wrestler. In the same way that I loved Field of Dreams. I dislike baseball and most sports, but strangely like movies about them. (I guess part of it is that they make the sport look exciting, when in reality it isn't.)

While I honestly have to ask whether bodybuilders are good for anything more than taking poses on a stage. In ridiculously tiny thongs.
These same thongs do reveal that they usually have a small "package", even when accounting for the relative size of the rest.


You'd think that bodybuilders might indulge in a little "crotch stuffing" like many rockers are alleged to have done.

I too wonder what bodybuilders are good for, and it's always been a mystery to me why anyone would go into it. Well, no, not really. Arnie parlayed his bodybuilding success into an uber successful film career and then to political office. Things didn't work out quite so well for Lou Ferrigno. Dorian Yates got into it as a way of making money so that he could have a better life. But this is not true of most of the guys who go into it. People who don't come from money but who didn't grow up poor. People who think it looks good. I could see it if equalled performance. But of course bodybuilding contests don't involve weightlifting or any other athletic tests. The weakest guy on stage could win because he has the most "impressive" physique. Very strange. Compare their strength to that of a powerlifter or, better still, an Olympic weightlifter. The bodybuilder comes up short in that department too.

As a proof of my un-jealousy, here's one man whose muscles were undeniably fantastic-looking: Johnny Weissmuller. The most famous Tarzan actor, and olympic swimming champion.

Johnny was the real deal. An athletic physique where his muscles were functional, about performance. The difference between muscular and musclebound.

Of course. To step in the ring with such a titan, who's to pretend he's fiercely massacring you, you really have to trust him as a stunt colleague, to know he WILL be careful not to truly hurt you. Wrestling accidents (the genuine ones) are often dramatic.

Isn't Brock also into MMA? I wouldn't want to face him in a real, honest fight. Seeing the kind of punishment wrestlers undergo even when it's "fake" (see the documentary Beyond the Mat, or The Wrestler for a fictional but accurate account) I don't think too many of us would be able to hold our own in a wrestling match with Brock either.

But I still feel those wrestlers are too "big". The things people will do for showbiz...

Maybe, but they are not quite the hulking, grotesque monstrosities bodybuilders are. Look at the Hulkster, or The Rock (the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment, who though muscular was not musclebound).

Hardly impressive muscle size, but when you know they genuinely are badass butt-kicking machines... Again, I mean the serious kung-fu talents, not the mainstream silly productions.

Impressive in the movies, but MMA has shown us that devotion to a single style doesn't work. Bruce Lee of course figured that out way before everyone else.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Just found this image on Wikipedia :
The WWE in Iraq.
Brings back memories...
The channel on which I watched WWE is inactive again. Lebanon... ):-P

"It's funny the kinds of people who are fans of this stuff. You think of the average pro wrestling fan as living in a trailer park."
Funny? More like uncanny: I *love* camping! ;-)

"Those were the days!"
Yes... and no. Beware of the nostalgia effect, much like the battle fog in Warcraft.
On some arabic network, there's an Egyptian guy, who was once a wrestling champion (in the USA, I think), and who alongside his champ's belt hosts a program about WWF/E wrestling. He shows fights from a wide time zone, including "vintage" matches from the period you mention. And this unwitting comparison reveals something very significant : matches in these days were much shorter! Why? My guess is, because they were less simulated. Nowadays, you see a superstar receive half a dozen spinebusters or similar ravaging moves, and still expect to see him "resurrect" and win like the devil got into him.
So sure, there's a lot of talk (and rather entertaining in its outrageousness, IMHO), but there's also a good amount of carefully studied action, with fights designed to be spectacular and longer lasting. That's showbiz, baby!
Or, to give unto Caesar... that's Vince McMahon's mediatic genius, babe!

Too bad Andre is so ancient, I can't even remember if he was taller than the Great Khali.
Both superb specimens of acromegaly : a benign tumor of the pituitary secreting growth hormone. Makes giants with massive hands, feet, brows and jaws. But also a dangerous hypertrophy of the cardiac muscle by thickening. Like Billy Crystal said in the very moving (and funny) film My Giant: "Have you ever seen an old giant?"
That condition doesn't help one live old. And it's EXACTLY the same with extrinsic GH use for dubious "physical boosting".

"a little "crotch stuffing" like many rockers are alleged to have done."
All envious hear-say, don't believe a word of it!
And Iggy Pop doesn't stuff his shirts, either. :-)

"Johnny was the real deal."
No dung! Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is cool.
Go Cheeta, get banana. Hey monkey, get funky! Oh-ee-oh-ee-ohhh!

I've read the bio on Vladimir Kozlov, and that guy impresses me too. American football, Sambo champion, kick-boxing champion... and good ol' apple pie wrestling!
And what about the Undertaker, still kicking and resurrecting (I worship his Dracula-like sitting up move!) at his age (he'll be 44 in three days).
Yes, there are some damn real talents in this entertainment branch. And I've been in agreement with you for many years: I call it stunts, you call it "punishment even when it's fake". (More like "simulated", to be accurate. The risks they take are very real.)

"I wouldn't want to face [Brock] in a real, honest fight"
Chances of this happening are slim. I don't "perceive" Brock as the sort of guy to pick a fight hastily. He's probably far too level-headed and pacific in his real persona.
Then again, he DID leave WWE for UFC, which is a lot more "real"...

"Look at the Hulkster, or The Rock"
Or, for that matter, look at the Hulk from the first movie (haven't seen the second yet). In regard to the creature's frame, he's far less monstrous than some flesh and blood grotesque culturists.
I guess they wanted to keep it realistic. :-)
The realism in that movie, I feel, fell short on ONE account: the Hulk's muscles didn't have enough inertia and tonus. Really. The two are antagonistic, but both felt too light for a real giant of muscles.
See Arnie's movies for some authentic feel of flesh in motion, for instance when he's running as Hercules in NY.
Animation IS always the toughest part of SFX, isn't it?
I recall seeing a few episodes of Lou Ferrigno, as the Gray Hulk. Well, he probably wasn't gray, more like green, but back then I only had a B&W TV!

"devotion to a single style doesn't work. Bruce Lee of course figured that out way before everyone else."
Well, that's a recurring theme in Kung Fu movies, isn't it? A single style can never make you invincible.
But yes, that's not the least quality I view in Bruce Lee. He had vision. Most probably a born genius in combat arts, the Mozart of kick-ass, the Einstein of black-and-blue.
[Ahem] Sorry. I'll calm down now.

And then I'll go and enjoy Annalee's three photo sets, which I'm downloading right now.

This may seem like a digression, but at agricultural fairs, I see some "prize-winning" animals, and they give me the same feeling as extreme culturists. An neckless ox or hog that's little more than a single block of meat on uneasily protruding legs. Or a cow with an udder as massive as its rump. Some say they're "beauties". Me, I only see freaks. Not only utterly misfit for any life in nature, but they almost need human help just to move around!
Yuck.
Why not mod all living creatures as liberally as this guy? I'm sure we could come up with plenty of good excuses.

My verif, rather ironic in this talk about steroid side effects: "falus".
Even the word for it has gotten smaller!

Anonymous said...

Too bad Andre is so ancient, I can't even remember if he was taller than the Great Khali.

I'm pretty sure Andre was shorter, but this depends on who you ask. Seeing him stand next to a basketball player of a known 7' height (I can't be sure, but I think it was Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain) he was a little shorter. I'd say 6'10". At his taller maybe 7 foot. But he had qualities that others lack. Partly I suppose it was his mangling of English (helped by his acromegaly in that I think it thickens the vocal chords or something).

Or, for that matter, look at the Hulk from the first movie (haven't seen the second yet).

Oops. I should've been clear - I menat The Hulkster (Hulk Hogan) not The Incredible Hulk.

The realism in that movie, I feel, fell short on ONE account: the Hulk's muscles didn't have enough inertia and tonus.

In other words he looked like he was computer generated. Compare to Spider-Man, who looked real. It looked like he really was swinging along there through Manhattan.

Anonymous said...

I meant to say at his tallest he was at most 7'. (Still, 6'10" is still pretty fucking tall, especially considering Andre wasn't basketball player slim.)