[Back when bodybuilders were still cool...]
When I first thought of writing an article about bodybuilders and bodybuilding, the first thing I thought was that it was going to be negative. Seriously, aren’t bodybuilders all the guys that grunt in the gym, take steroids, smell bad and never get out of the gym? Someone even suggested to me that I purposely try and rile up the bodybuilders to build controversy and help advertise Passionate Fitness.
Then I realized two things. One, I have no desire to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. It’s important for me that this site gets publicity for giving great fitness tips and having the best fitness community around for support and discussion, not for starting random fights (non random fights are okay though). Two, I don’t approve of bodybuilding as a sport, but I have nothing personal against bodybuilders.
That’s why instead of being article about five ways to avoid bodybuilders at the gym, it’s going to be five reasons I’m thankful for bodybuilders. I also want to make an offer to all bodybuilders. If you are willing to take a look outside of your sheltered, bodybuilder only forums over at t-nation and other sites, we will offer you a home at Passionate Fitness.
This offer is specifically open to those who are interested in being in a friendly community where people with different goals help each other. Everyone else can move along.
Here are five reasons I’m thankful for bodybuilders and bodybuilding:
1. They know what it takes to gain muscle mass. If you’re a man, most likely at sometime in your life you’ve thought of putting on muscle mass. While you may not want to look like a bodybuilder, there is no question that they are the best in the fitness industry when it comes to advice on putting on mass. The trick is just to take their advice and apply it in a more moderate manner mixed in with normal fitness tips so that you still are able to achieve the lean and cut look, but with more mass.
2. They understand different kinds of training depending on when you need results. Bodybuilders train to look a certain way in competitions, and that means they know how to change the way their body looks in sometimes as little as a weeks time. If you’re interested in learning how to get cut for an occassion, bodybuilders are often a great resource for that kind of knowledge.
3. They test things so that you don’t have to. There’s no question that bodybuilders are in front of professional athletes when it comes to testing the latest supplements and fads to see their effects. Often, these things don’t work and turn out to be a money burner. But very occassionally, they really work and they might be useful for the everyday fitness person to get. Bodybuilders do a service, although unknowingly, of testing these things so that other people don’t have to.
[With bodybuilders now doing the testing, guinea pigs have been let free to live the rest of their little lives happily in the wild. Thank you, bodybuilders.]
4. They know about injuries. Bodybuilding is competitive, and bodybuilders often push themselves hard and get injured. I’ve personally benefited from information exchanged about tendinosis that some bodybuilders got for pushing too hard on the squat. Like professional sports, bodybuilding stresses the body and pushes sports medicine to improve.
5. Hasta la vista, baby. Can you imagine this phrase being uttered by anyone except Arnold Schwarzenegger? If there’s one thing to thank bodybuilders for, it’s for supplying us with one of the most well known villains turned heros in movie history.
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Rafi Bar-Lev is a former combat medic and the founder of Passionate Fitness.
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