Man, when I was like 16 I got so sick of being made fun of for being the fat kid that I took an axe down inna woods, chopped down a tree, and started doing log-lifts all the time. I got strong as fuck, but I didn’t lose no weight. I actually got bigger.
Same thing happened when I got into fighting. I got even stronger, and I got *fast*, man, and nimble, like a cat. Still chubby.
Body-building culture is a bunch of crap, my dude. Functional muscle is not necessarily toned or lean. You can be swole as hell and still be heavy. And that’s cool.
Embrace your inner barbarian. And when fatphobic little gym twinks try to body shame you, you should DESTROY THEM with your MIGHTY AXE
Can comfirm, i am Quite Fat ™ but i still hit my punching bag hard enough last week make it touch the ceiling and broke a finger in the process
You know, I train with (martial arts) a bunch of dudes, and a few bodybuilders have showed up over the years.
And every damn one of those huge shredded motherfuckers has the endurance of a fucking newborn puppy. Fifteen minutes into warmups and they’re panting for air like like they’re about to die. I’ve sparred them and every one of them telegraphs their moves about two weeks in advance, and are slower than my dead grandpa because their huge useless muscles get in the damn way.
Now. I also work with a couple of guys who are not weightlifters. They do, however, do very physical jobs and are Big Dudes. Picture this sort of build.
No abs to speak of, a bit of a tummy, and those motherfuckers can pick up one of the weightlifters and throw them.
And they’re fast. Like, unfair fast.
Bodybuilding culture is bullshit. Embrace your status as a giant barbarian and if anyone gives you crap throw them off a mountain.
This is true for all humans, too!
At my heaviest (well over 300lbs) I still ran an 11 minute mile (pre-disability). And even when I was at my most active, and training intensely, I was never hardbodied despite working out full time. Functional muscle for me looks like horse legs and a big muscular butt with a soft tummy and big arms.
I’m built like a Celtic Warrior Goddess and I will never have a flat tummy and toned arms and that is fine by me because I could snap a grown man in half.
Yes!
Have you seen olympic powerlifters?
This is Sarah Robles, on the USA Olympic Powerlifting team.
Skinny? No. Could pick me up with one arm? Absofuckinglutely.
Sarah Robles was once in an auto accident. She braced her arms against the steering wheel & by main force held it back from smashing her in the chest.
She fought her car & she won.
wHAT
Holy shit I love her even more.
That would shatter my arms like glass.
So here’s the thing: in order to have muscle definition, you need to have approx. 0 body fat. Aaand 0% body fat is wildly unhealthy. A healthy percentage of body fat lies between 10-20% for men, and 20-30% for women.
On top of that, men and women carry their fat differently – for girls it’s on the “outside” (boobs, butt, thighs, tummy, arms), while boys generally store their fat between their organs. So for men, it’s somewhat easier to have muscle definition than it is for women. I’ve been a gymnast for 23 years, I am most definitely stronger than most men, but the only time I ever had a visible six-pack was after I’d come down with appendicitis and lost 8 kg and basically all of my body fat. And together with that body fat I also lost a good chunk of my endurance. Because the issue is you need body fat to keep up your muscles. It’s muscle food.
Obviously, your build comes into play here as well. Some people are naturally lean and sinewy but still strong as hell (my best friend’s father was the skinniest man you ever saw but he could carry three times his body weight across long treks by foot with ease); some are giant barbarians (which is a very sexy build to have, definitely). Strength and muscle definition are two entirely different things.
Keep up your body fat! Be strong!
PS. Someone above said “no abs to speak of” in relation to strong men with physical jobs, and I’d like to point out that just because you don’t have a showing six-pack, it doesn’t mean you don’t have abs. I can kill a man with my core/abs (again, gymnast), but you wouldn’t really know looking at me.
As a short and very squishy looking womany person, who does full contact martial arts four times a week –an Okinawan style Karate (Shorin-ryu Seibukan)– I agree with everything above.
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