If you are engaged in body building for the sake of becoming as big and as muscular as you possibly can then I’m sure you’ve noticed that 1) Your confidence isn’t growing as fast as your muscles are; 2) Very often it seems like it’s a lot of work and the results are disproportionately low to what you put in as effort;, and 3) Even when you achieve good results oftentimes you don’t feel satisfied. It’s like it’s never good enough.
In this article (and video), I will give you 3 reasons why you may be feeling this way, and why building huge muscles for the sake of being huge should probably not be your main goal:
Reason No. 1. Big muscles give false sense of confidence
The truth is that we build muscles for reasons that we aren’t even conscious about – admiration and respect from other men, domination over other males, and status. The bigger you get the more you think that you are invincible and there is no other male that can stand on your way.
The problem is that usually competing for domination and status among other males doesn’t work with striking bodybuilding poses. It does take actual skills in physical fights. And, big muscles have nothing to do with fighting skills, fighting skills have everything to do with fighting skills. So, if bodybuilding is your main thing and you ignore the manliness aspect you may find yourself in trouble.
[arve url=”httpsss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZuU38nGaU”]
Reason No 2. Muscle dysmorphia
Muscle dysmorphia, also called bigorexia or megarexia is a medical condition that’s the opposite of anorexia. It simply means it’s never enough. You are always too small, too skinny, too ugly, underdeveloped.
Think of it this way. If your arm is 15 inches your goal is to grow it to 17 inches. When you get to 17 inches it’s not enough. You’re still small and now you want it to be 18 inches. Does that sound familiar?
In my observations, most guys who are fixated on building excessive muscle mass suffer from muscle dysmorphia. I used to suffer from it.
And, it’s not easy to cure yourself of this – 1) You have to acknowledge that you have it, and 2) You have to learn to accept yourself the way you are.
Reason No. 3. It’s against nature – gains don’t last
You have to eat all the time not only to grow new muscle but simply to maintain. Feels like a job and your day revolves around your food. Your vacations, travel, enjoying evenings out with friends – everything is difficult because you have to eat every 3 hours.
You have to eat 5-6 times a day, there must be a large amount of protein in each meal, it’s difficult to prepare, it costs a lot in money, in time, effort, in missed opportunities and life in general.
And, the moment something happens and you aren’t able to maintain that schedule your hard-earned muscles start to go away.
If it’s so difficult, if it’s so unnatural, if you have to work so hard at it – without getting paid – why do it then? A lot of it is going to go away one day anyway.
I did bodybuilding for 23 years, 9 years as a competitive bodybuilder. It took me more than 27 years to learn what I know today – why I did bodybuilding and the high prices I had to pay in work, effort, money, missed opportunities and missed life.
So, if you’ve never thought about it, I want you to take a few minutes and think about why you are doing bodybuilding.
Once you know the answer, think about whether it is worth the cost that you’re paying for the return on investment you are getting.